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H ISTORY 



SHORT-HORN CATTLE 



THEIR ORIGIN, PROGRESS AND 
PRESENT CONDITION. 



$1 , C 

BY 

LEWIS F. ALLEN, 

AUTHOR OF "AMERICAN CATTLE," EDITOR OF THE "AMERICAN SHORT-HORN 
HERD BOOK," ETC. 



BUFFALO, N. Y.: 
PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR. 

No. 1 192 Niagara Street. 
1S72. 



/ 

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by 

LEWIS F. ALLEN, 
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



Warren, Johnson & Co. 

Stereotyj>ers y Printers and Binders, 

Buffalo, N. Y. 



PREFACE. 



THIS book has cost me much labor. The material from 
which it has been drawn was difficult to obtain — much more 
than those not conversant with the subject would imagine — and 
many years have elapsed in its gathering. Short-horn cattle 
history, in a connected form, has never existed since the race 
has been known, and it is only through the scraps and desultory 
notes made from time to time by different breeders and occa- 
sional writers within the past seventy years that we learn any- 
thing with certainty, and then in such disconnected fragments 
that the toil of dissecting, arranging, and putting them together 
understanding^ has been most perplexing and difficult. 

Still, the work, such as it is, has been accomplished ; and 
that a volume of this character is needed by the Short-horn 
breeders, of America, and other countries where the race exists, 
must be evident to every intelligent breeder. Many of the 
various writings relating to Short-horns, their breeding and pro- 
gress, scattered through the agricultural publications of the day, 
both in Great Britain and America are of decided value ; but 
portions of them have been intermixed with such partisan feel- 
ing, and sometimes so inaccurate in statement as to yield little 
of correct information to those who wish to arrive at the real 
truth of Short-horn history. The mass of cattle breeders have 
not been of the class addicted to scholastic pursuits, although 
they knew many facts, valuable and important. Many of these 



IV PREFACE. 

facts have been given to the world ; but more of them have 
perished with their possessors who died and left no sign of 
their labors, other than the noble animals whose posterity have 
survived them. 

The English Herd Books, from the year 1822, have recorded 
pedigrees of the Short-horns existing nearly a century back, 
and as they have since increased and multiplied, down to the 
present time ; but they have given us pedigrees only. Had 
they been accompanied with historical matter relating to their 
breeders, and the distinguished animals of their times, they 
would have added much of both interest and instruction. 
Some such notes have been written by accurate observers, 
and preserved, from which we have gleaned valuable informa- 
tion ; but the information derived from them is less full and 
complete than could be wished. Inference and guess-work 
have been measurably resorted to by some writers in past days 
to give color to various facts and theories of their own — some 
of them right, and some erroneous. In the examination of 
authorities leading to the present work many contradictory 
statements have been canvassed, and an effort has been made 
to separate the probable from the improbable ; yet it is not 
denied that errors may be found in these pages, so difficult has 
it been to detect and separate fact from opinion, truth from 
imagination. 

It may be asked : Why, with such contrarieties of historical 
fact and opinion, strive to write Short-horn history at all ? The 
plain answer is : The Short-horns have a history, and a most 
interesting one. A hundred years ago they were comparatively 
an obscure race* of cattle, even in the land of their nativity. 
For several centuries they had been considered of little value 
over other common neat cattle, until sasracious men discovered 



PREFACE. V 

their capability of improvement ; and through the persevering 
efforts of such men they have been raised to a degree of per- 
fection, value, and popularity, far beyond any other of the 
known bovine races. The money value of well-bred Short- 
horns now in the United States alone, may be safely estimated 
at several millions of dollars. They are worthy of a history, 
and a better one, too, if possible, than is here presented ; but 
there having appeared no other, this must suffice until an abler 
and more painstaking pen shall replace or supercede it. 

This effort has been a labor of love chiefly, for in its limited 
sale — anticipated only among Short-horn breeders — no pecuni- 
ary profit can result from its publication. Having been for many 
years connected with the compilations of the American Herd 
Book, and so many questions continually arising touching facts 
and incidents in their previous breeding, (perhaps better known 
to the author through his several hundreds of correspondents 
than to almost any other,) he has been convinced that these 
cattle should have, as they well deserve, as full a history as can 
be given of their race. The book makes no pretension to 
literary merit. It is a plain subject, treated in a plain way, 
and in the hope that it will be understood by all who may look 
into its pages. Omissions, both of fact and date, there may be, 
on the detection of which fastidious critics may carp and con- 
demn. If such there be, we advise them to go forthwith to 
work and get up a better. Without further apology or excuse 
for its shortcomings, it goes forth to the public. 

It is proper to say in this connection, that both the first and 
second volumes of the American Herd Book contain consid- 
erable matter (written and edited by the author of this work) 
relating to Short-horn history, as then understood. But the pres- 
ent work supercedes all that, as further sources of information 



VI PREFACE. 

more detailed, and in some instances more accurate, have since 
come to light. 

It is fitting here to acknowledge the several favors which 
I have received from many correspondents in various parts 
of the United States, also some few in England, and the 
Canadas, who have contributed valuable information and 
papers relating to various subjects of this volume, for which 
I hold them in grateful remembrance. 

LEWIS F. ALLEN. 
Buffalo, N. Y., August, 1872. 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



We have thought it necessary to illustrate the work with a few portraits of 
animals of distinguished reputation in their times, and such as would show the 
comparative merits and improvements in the anatomy and style of the Short-horns 
as they progressed from as early a day as possible down to a recent period. The 
scarcity of portraits of the earlier animals has afforded but a limited opportunity 
to make selections. We have wished to present the best specimens of their time, 
irrespective of any particular tribe or family to which they belonged, and only 
regret that the portraits we have been able to obtain are restricted to the herds of 
so few breeders ; yet they were animals well known in Short-horn circles, and 
whose blood courses in the veins of very many herds of the present day. They are 
given with no intention to claim superiority over some others that may have existed 
contemporary with them, but because other equally good portraits could not be 
found. We place them in the order of time at which they lived : 

1. Duchess, red and white, bred by Charles Colling, calved in 1800, got by 

Daisy bull (1S6), out of , by Favorite (252), — by Hubback (319), — the 

Stanwick (original Duchess) cow, by J. Brown's red bull (97). At 7 years old, 
milked down, and thin in flesh. Drawn by Weaver. Plate after a copy by Dalby. 
Page 13. 

2. Comet (155), light roan, bred by Charles Colling, calved in 1804, got by 
Favorite (252), out of Young Phoenix, by Favorite (252), — Phcenix, by Foljambe 
(263), — Lady Maynard, by R. Alcock's bull (19), — by Jacob Smith's bull (608), — by 
Jolly's bull (337). At 6 years old. Drawn by Weaver. Plate after a copy by 
Dalby. Page 74. 

3. Ketton ist (709), red and white, bred by Charles Colling, calved in 1S05, 
got by Favorite (252), out of Duchess, by Daisy bull (186), etc., as in No. 2, above. 
At full age. Drawn by Weaver. Plate after a copy by Dalby. Frontispiece. 

4. The White Heifer that Traveled, bred by Robert Colling, calved about 
the year 1806, got by Favorite (252), out of Favorite cow, by Favorite (252), — gr. 
dam, by Punch (531). At full age. Drawn by Weaver. Plate after a copy by 
Dalby. Page 84. 

5. Duchess 1ST, red and white, bred by Charles Colling, calved in 1808, got by 

Comet (155), out of , by Favorite (252), — Duchess, by Daisy bull (186), 

etc., as in No. 2, above. At full age. Drawn by Dalby. Page 125. 

6. Belvedere (1706), roan, bred by Mr. Stephenson, calved in 1826, got by 
Waterloo (2S16), out of Angelina 2d, by Young Wynyard (2859), — Angelina, by 
Phenomenon (491), — Anne Boleyn, by Favorite (252), — Princess, by Favorite (252) 
[bred by Robert Colling, and own sister to his White bull (151)], — by Favorite (252), 



viii ILLUSTRATIONS. 

— by Snowdon's bull (612), — by Masterman's bull (422), — by Harrison's bull (292), 
— bred by Mr. Pickering. At 8 years old. Drawn by Dalby. Page 127. 

7. Duchess 34TH, mostly red, bred by Thomas Bates, calved in 1832, got by 
Belvedere (1706), out of Duchess 29th, by 2d Hubback (1423), — Duchess 20th, by 
2d Earl (1511), — Duchess 8th, by Marske (418), — Duchess 2d, by Ketton 1st (709), 
— Duchess 1st, by Comet (155), etc., as in No. 5, above. At 11 years old, milked 
dry, and left hip broken down. Drawn by Dalby. Page 128. 

8. Duke of Northumberland (1941), red roan, bred by Thomas Bates, calved 
in 1835, got by Belvedere (1706), out of Duchess 34th, by Belvedere (1706), etc., as 
in No. 7, above. At 8 years old. Drawn by Dalby. Page 131. 

9. Necklace (twinned with light roan Bracelet), mostly red, bred by John 
Booth, Killerby, calved in 1837, got by Priam (2452), out of Toy, by Argus (759), — 
Vestal, by Pilot (496), — Vestris, by Remus (550), — Valentine, by Blucher (82), — 
Countess, by Albion (14), — by Shakspeare (582), — by Easby (232). At 6 years old. 
Drawn by Gauci. Page III. 

10. Commander-in-Chief (21451), roan, bred by Richard Booth, calved in 
1864, got by Valasco (15443), out of Campfollower, by Crown Prince (10087), — 
Vivandiere, by Buckingham (3239), — Minette, by Leonard (4210), — Young Moss 
Rose, by Young Matchem (4422), — by Priam (2452), — by Young Alexander (2979), 
— by Pilot (496). At 4 years old. Drawn by Gauci. Page 146. 

The red and roan shades in the colors of the plates show less conspicuously in 
lithograph than in the original paintings, for which allowance must be made. The 
artist, Mr. Page, has executed them with great fidelity and care. 

Further notices of these animals will be found on the pages where the plates 
occur. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 



First Period of their History — The Second Period — The Cathedral Cow — When 
began the Improvement — Progress of Improvement 13 

CHATTER II. 

The Early Breeders — Dates and Names of Noted Animals — The Colling Brothers — 
Hubback — The Stanwick, or Original Duchess — Lady Maynard and Young 
Strawberry — Foljambe — Charles Colling's Mode of Breeding — The Durham 
Ox — Robert Colling and his Breeding 2S 

CHAPTER III. 

Were the Collings the Earliest and Chief Improvers of the Short-horns — Their 
Early Cattle — The Galloway Cross — Berry's Youatt History — Charles Colling's 
Final Sale — Robert Colling's Sales of 1818 and 1820 — The Collings' Improve- 
ment 56 

CHAPTER IV. 

The Booth Family and their Short-horns— The Studley Herd— The Killerby Herd 
—The Warlaby Herd 95 

CHAPTER V. 

Thomas Bates — His Short-horns and their Breeding — The Duchess Tribe — The 
Matchem Cow — Mr. Bates' other Tribes — Colors of the Bates Herds — Sale of 
Mr. Bates' Herd, and their English successors — Lord Ducie's Breeding and 
Sales 118 

CHAPTER VI. 
Mr. Bates' Influence on the Short-horns — Did he Improve them 144 

CHAPTER VII. 

The English Short-horn Breeders contemporary with the Collings and their imme- 
diate successors T-4% 



X TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

The Short-horns in America — The Gough and Miller Importations of the last cen- 
tury — The Patton Stock — Various other Importations — The Kentucky Impor- 
tation of 1817 — Sundry Importations down to 1830 155 

CHAPTER IX. 

The Later Short-horn Importations into various States by different associations and 
individuals — Declension of Prices 178 

CHAPTER X. 

Revival of the Short-horns in America — Importations in rapid succession into sev- 
eral different States by individuals and associations — Canadian Importations — 
The Short-horns as Milkers — As Flesh-producing Animals — Vitality, Longev- 
ity, and Fertility — Colors of Short-horn Noses — Bodily Colors 193 

CHAPTER XL 

Exportations of American Short-horns to England and Scotland — The Style, Figure 
and Quality which should represent a Perfect Short-horn 222 

CHAPTER XII. 

Pure Short-horns — Herd Books — Pedigrees — The English Herd Book — The Amer- 
ican Herd Book 230 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Progress of Short-horns in America — Have they Improved — English and American 
Herd Book Pedigrees — Notes on Breeding — Thorough-breds — Full-bloods — 
Conclusion 244 



PART FIRST. 



HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 



CHAPTER I. 

First Period of their History. 

The origin of this noble race of cattle is obscure ; but, that their 
lineage is ancient there can be no question. Modern records — say- 
within the last hundred and fifty years, as tradition had already done 
for several hundred years previous — first recognize them inhabiting 
the counties of Northumberland, Durham, York, and Lincoln, on the 
north-eastern coast of England, and the country more immediately 
in the vicinity of the river Tees — the dividing line between Durham 
and York — as the locality where the more signal efforts have been 
made in their cultivation and improvement. 

Why it is that the histories of nations, states, and peoples, usually 
so minute in what relates to conquests, government, laws, military 
and naval achievements, arts, and the general condition of the people, 
leave out valuable minor items to which the industry of the popula- 
tion is continuously directed, is difficult to say, other than the histo- 
rians themselves have had no tastes or sympathies in common with 
agricultural pursuits; or perhaps the humbler subjects of agricul- 
tural industry were esteemed of too vulgar and menial a character to 
attract their notice. In short, domestic animals were below the 
"dignity of history," while the dirty intrigues of a lascivious monarch 
with a high-born wanton, or of a court favorite with an attractive 
wench of plebeian birth, were exalted subjects of record ! 

From researches through the various authorities in English annals 
from the time that England had a recognized history at all, we find 
no mention made of cattle, as distinguished by origin, race, or breed. 
They are mentioned as domestic animals, simply, furnishing a portion 
of the food of the people, and articles of traffic, and there all allusion 
to them ends. We know nothing further whatever of their existence, 



14 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

use, or varieties than we know of the foxes, hares and badgers, in 
which the outskirt lands of the nobility abounded. We have 
labored descriptions and illustrations of the costumes of the people, 
their amusements, games, tournaments — faithful chronicles of the 
times, no doubt — but not a word of their domestic animals, save now 
and then an allusion to the horses of the realm, but of them, even, 
no definite idea is given of either breed, conformation, or their 
adaptation to different uses. 

In view of this dearth of information we have to resort somewhat 
to conjecture, and that conjecture drawn from collateral testimony, 
and incidents occasionally cropping out through historical events. 
Until, therefore, we can strike a vein of information with apparent 
truth and probability on its side, we must, as best we can, grope 
through the clouds of tradition mainly for an earlier account of the 
Short-horns. 

For some centuries previous to the advent of the Normans under 
William the Conqueror, and while under Saxon, and probably the 
anterior Roman rule, the warlike Scandinavians of Denmark, Sweden 
and Norway, invaded the north-eastern coasts of England, compris- 
ing the counties which we have named, then called Northumbria, and 
held them for longer or shorter terms in subjection. The Scandina- 
vians were skilled in the use of arms, bold navigators, pirates, both 
on sea and land, raiding upon all the weaker peoples which they 
could reach, and holding them subsidiary to their own power and 
purposes. With all these peoples, which, to a greater or less extent, 
they subjected to their rule, they established trade and commerce, 
and interchanged commodities, for they were as enterprising and 
sagacious in trade as they were daring in their conquests and rob- 
beries. They may not have carried away prisoners from England 
to their own lands, but more or less of their adventurous men set- 
tled themselves and made homes among the conquered people, mar- 
ried their women, and the children became Northumbrians in birth, 
habits and permanent abode. 

At the time of the Norman conquest, in the year 1066, the people 
of Northumbria presented a mixture of ancient Britons, Saxons and 
Scandinavians, in blood, name and identity of character. Its cli- 
mate was the most rigorous of the territory lying south of Scotland ; 
its coast looked out on the bleak German ocean ; its soil was moist, 
readily worked, rich in the natural elements of fertility, and emi- 
nently fitted for pasturage and the production of the better grasses ; 
yet its agriculture, like all the northern English counties of that day, 



FIRST PERIOD OF THEIR HISTORY. 15 

was in a low condition. Its laborers were inured to the hardest fare, 
and the rudest of homes. The invading Danes were not better in 
their own homes than were the subdued Saxons of Northumbria in 
theirs, and between them both, we may imagine that with the alternate 
struggles of invasion on one side, and defense or submission on the 
other, agriculture held but a meager opportunity for improvement. 

Concurrent with their forays on Northumbria, the Danes extended 
their raids southward, taking possession for a time of Holstein, Utrecht, 
and the northerly portion of Holland. These countries they held, 
as they did north-eastern England, for purposes of plunder, trade 
and political advantage. As all these outlying provinces enjoyed a 
milder climate and a more productive soil than their own, the sea 
and land rovers profited largely in their conquests, and extended 
their commerce, not only with the peoples whose homes they had 
usurped, but with distant countries as well. Hence they waxed rich 
and powerful, as riches and power were then considered. Among 
the prominent articles of their traffic and interchange between Den- 
mark and the provinces over which they held their fitful sway, was 
that of domestic animals, and the chief of these were neat cattle. 

In north-western Europe, and all along the coast through Sweden, 
Denmark, and southwardly through the subjugated countries towards 
Holland, the cattle were a large, raw-boned race, of which we now 
know little beyond what the ancient chronicles say of them, and as 
they have been more lately known, only that they were useful beasts, 
strong for labor, yielding largely of milk, coarse in flesh, peculiar in 
color, and short in the horn. Such cattle, or those near akin to them, 
exist in those countries now. It may well be supposed that the 
continental cattle were frequently carried across the narrow sea sep- 
arating England from the land of the Danes and their contiguous 
southern neighbors, and that they became a permanent stock of the 
country, as a cognate race existed in the Northumbrian counties, 
when the first dawnings of agricultural advancement opened upon 
the landholders and cultivators of that region some centuries after 
the victorious Norman had firmly established himself on the English 
throne, and driven the Danes from the possession of its soil. 

For many years after their invasion and conquest, the Normans 
encountered much hostility before the stubborn Saxons and Danes 
(the latter which had settled among them now become incorporated 
with the others in a common nationality) peacefully submitted to the 
rigorous yoke which, from the moment he had secured his footing on 
English ground, the Conqueror had fastened on the necks of the 



l6 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

ravaged people. Plundered in their homes, despoiled of their lands 
and chattels, subjected to ignominious servitude, and oftentimes 
struggling for life itself, the Northumbrian serfs, even when peace- 
fully submissive to the iron rule of their new masters, could make 
but little progress in their rude agriculture, or rise to an improved 
condition of life, labor, or production. 

To this subjection of the people and their lands to their new law- 
givers, followed in succession through a long course of years, the 
foreign wars of the kings and rulers, heavy taxation, military con- 
scriptions, the petty rivalries of the nobles among themselves, the 
rebellion of the barons against the despotism of their monarchs, 
civil wars, religious convulsions, and the almost numberless turmoils 
incident to a proud, brave, enterprising, warlike, yet ignorant people 
of divers races, such as England, by the intermarriages and social 
amalgamation of the higher classes of the Saxon and Norman blood, 
had now become. For several centuries the common people were 
little more than barbarians, and their rulers no better than despots. 
Agricultural progress either languished or barely held its own. The 
clothing of the peasantry and laborers was partially of the skins of 
sheep and goats, frequently undressed, or sometimes by a luxurious 
indulgence, of the coarsest cloth. Their habitations were covered 
with thatch, without chimneys, or floors, other than of earth or tile. 
Their beds were of straw or grass; their food of the coarsest of 
grains, and meat seldom. Their farm stock had little or no shelter 
beyond what the woods and frequent glens afforded, and of course 
were subjected to the inclement vicissitudes of the climate. Yet 
the barons, having monopolized the land, lived in state, indulging in 
sumptuous feasts and entertainments, although of necessity coarse in 
their kind, while the clergy and monks, appropriating to themselves 
the chief learning of the times, nestled in the choicest nooks of the 
territory, levied their exactions upon the surrounding people, and 
reared their vast Cathedrals, and spacious, comfortable Monasteries, 
while consoling them with their religious services and ceremonies. 
The royal courts, too, were more luxurious than either the barons or 
clergy, and although great in administration and powerful in arms, 
were more or less degraded in life and morals. Yet among all these 
adverse influences, great and bright men in court, and state, and 
church, arose through the degradation and ignorance around them, and 
gradually worked the people into better conditions of employment, 
progress and civilization. 



FIRST PERIOD OF THEIR HISTORY. IJ 

The necessities of the great landholders began at last to lead their 
attention to the improvement of their soils. The country had pro- 
gressed rapidly in population. The now constituted people of Eng- 
land, under a progressing nationality, had become a mass of breeding 
humanity. Human life had long been cheap in the sacrifices which 
had been made by the governing classes, as well among themselves 
as their serfs, during the wars, both foreign and civil, and also in the 
frequent executions at the hands of "justice," which then took place 
for even paltry offenses committed against each other by the common 
people. Yet the teeming workers at home filled these depleting 
gaps more rapidly than they occurred, and far beyond, furnished new 
mouths for consuming the products of the soil as well as hands to 
aid in its development. Along these times an experimenter and 
writer in agriculture occasionally turned up. " The Whole Art of 
Husbandry" by Barnaby Googe, was published in the year 1558 ; 
"Tussers Five Hundred Points of Husbandry" in 1562; Sir Hugh 
Piatt's "Jewell House of Art and Nature" in 1594; Fitz-Herbert, 
Harrison, and some others, about the same time wrote and published 
limited works on husbandry. In addition to these more humble 
authors, illustrious minds, like Bacon, Raleigh, and an occasional 
compger of noble birth or station enlightened the people with progres- 
sive ideas on soils, their management, and articles of production. 

The English world still moved. Yet in all their agricultural 
advancement we hear nothing of improvement in neat cattle, until 
near the beginning of the eighteenth century, or shortly previous to 
the year 1720. It is true that great progress had been made in culti- 
vating the soil; wide stretches of the marshy coast along the shores 
of Lincoln, Cambridge and other counties, had been dyked in and 
reclaimed from the sea. Considerable progress in science, in the 
arts, in trade, and various departments of industry had been devel- 
oped, but with a strange indifference to the improvement of domestic 
animals, with the single exception of the horse — as he was indispen- 
sable in both war and luxury — little attention so far as public knowl- 
edge was concerned, had been given to either cattle, sheep or swine, 
except what was acquired in a few widely separated localities ; and 
even those improvements, wherever they occurred, attracted little or 
no attention from writers on husbandry, or its interests. Yet we must 
suppose that intelligent and studious minds had occasionally been 
at work during the general progress in agricultural advancement, 
and some attention paid to ameliorating the forms and condition of 
neat cattle ; for it is impossible that the Short-horns, like the fabled 



18 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

Minerva, from the head of Jupiter, should have burst out in the full 
proportions of shape, color and condition, at the' time we first hear 
of them — about the year 1700 — from the coarse, unimproved herds 
of previous centuries. 

Second Period of the Short-horns. 

In the preceding rambling, desultory, and (as some of our readers 
may pronounce) irrelevant remarks, have been narrated the reasons 
why, if any progress had been made in the improvement of the 
neat cattle of England through past centuries down to nearly the 
year 1700, we have no certain evidences of the fact recorded until 
a comparatively recent date. We think the causes enumerated have 
been sufficient to explain. For the improvement which had taken 
place, tradition (uncertain, to be sure, when unaccompanied with sus- 
taining probabilities) has done something to inform us, and recorded 
observation since, has done much more. A period of general quie- 
tude in England, with only occasional interruptions, since the expul- 
sion of the Stuarts from the throne, in the year 1688, had given an 
unwonted impulse to the thrift and progress of every department of 
her industry, advancing her to a high position among the leading 
powers of Europe, both in commerce, manufactures, and the exten- 
sion of her distant colonies. As a matter of necessity her agriculture 
had been largely developed and improved, and with that improvement 
no doubt much attention had been paid to the better quality and 
value of her domestic animals. To the various breeds of cattle 
which England possessed, down to about the period named, we shall 
pay no attention other than the Short-horns, the object of this trea- 
tise, argument, history, or whatever it may be called, being solely 
relating to them, as they existed anterior to their appearance at that 
time, and their condition through various stages of advancement to 
the present day. 

The work we have undertaken, down to the period of our own mem- 
ory and observation, must, of course, chiefly consist of a compilation 
from the writings and records of others, and from these will be given 
as faithful a transcript as possible, throwing out matter of doubtful 
authority, and admitting all which has the semblance of fact and 
probability. Exact facts, in all cases, cannot be ascertained ; but an 
approximation to facts may be, and such we shall strive to give, with- 
out alteration or color. Yet, to give the semblance of probability to 
what may be said, the observant reader must at once admit, and 



SECOND TERIOD OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 19 

yield to the theory that improvement from a defective organization 
to almost perfection in the development of their qualities in nearly 
all kinds of domestic animals, is measurably within the power of 
an intelligent breeder, who, by a sort of intuition, or through a long 
course of study and observation, is also a physiologist. Without 
such admission — that is- to say — the capability of improvement by 
careful breeding, food and treatment of an inferior creature through 
a course of successive generations in its offspring into a superior one, 
all discussion of the subject is worthless. 

The reader will observe that our first field of observation, for a 
time, will relate solely to the counties of England comprising the 
ancient Northumbria, once ravaged and occupied by the Danes. 
Let us start fair. We cannot, as we pass, well quote, in particular, 
all the several authorities from which we draw our earlier Short-horn 
history ; for many of them are so fragmentary in their accounts that 
no continuous narrative in time or place can be made from either 
one alone. The principal sources from which we date our several 
.items of history will be hereafter acknowledged. 

A hundred and forty years ago, or about the year 1730, there was 
a tradition floating among the Short-horn breeders living in the coun- 
ties of York and Durham, near the river Tees, that a breed of cattle 
had, many centuries back, existed within their borders — chiefly in 
Holderness, a district of Yorkshire — much resembling in size, shape 
and color, many of the cattle of Denmark, Holstein and north- 
western Europe, at that day. At what particular time they were first 
found in England, or who imported them, was unknown. They 
were of extraordinary size; had coarse heads, with short, stubbed 
horns; heavy necks; high, coarse shoulders; flat sides, the chine 
falling back of the shoulders ; the hips wide; the rumps long; the 
thighs thick, and cloddy. Yet with all these undesirable points 
which rendered them large feeders, and late to mature, they took on 
flesh rapidly, and fattened into heavy carcasses. Their flesh, how- 
ever, was coarse-grained, dark in color, and less savory to the taste 
than that of smaller breeds. Their colors were light dun, or yellow 
red, deep red, pure white, red and white in patches, roan mixed of 
both red and white, and no uniformity in the laying on of either one 
of those colors, or their admixtures, the colors prevailing, as acci- 
dent might govern. The cows were large milkers, yielding quantities, 
with generous feed, beyond any others yet known. There can be 
little doubt that these animals were the direct descendants from the 
cattle brought over from Denmark previous to the conquest. Some 



20 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

of that race of cattle existed in Holderness within the memories of 
men yet living, and we, ourself, nearly fifty years ago, saw several 
animals of a direct importation into this country from that district 
in Yorkshire, which were akin to the description above given. 

But, to put at rest, so far as an illustration of art can do it, the 
question of the early existence of the Short-horn race in England, 
we extract a bit of history recorded in the eighth volume of our own 
Short-horn Herd Book : 

" It will be recollected that in Vol. 2, p. 55, in narrating the ancient 
lineage of the Short-horns, a sculptured cow on the wall of one of 
the towers of the great- Cathedral in Durham, is mentioned. The 
sculpture is that of a cow and two milkmaids, chiseled in light cream- 
colored stone, of nearly life size, from living models, and set up in a 
broad niche of one of the towers of the Cathedral. The sketch 
from which the engraving is cut, was taken at our request by Mr. 
John R. Page, of Sennett, Cayuga county, N. Y., when on a visit 
there in September, 1867. As to the reason for a statue of the cow 
and milkmaids occupying such a singular place, the following extract 
from a letter to us from Mr. A. B. Allen, in August, 1867, will explain. 
He was a few weeks in advance of Mr. Page in his visit, and was not 
aware at the time that the latter had crossed the Atlantic : 

" I arrived at Durham, last evening, and have spent the whole 
forenoon of to-day, in and about the Cathedral. It is a magnificent 
old stone pile, and including the Lady Chapel, extending from its 
west end, is upwards. of five hundred feet long and two hundred feet 
broad. It stands on an open place of several acres, the leveled top 
of a rocky hill, nearly encircled at its base by the river Wear. The 
building thus shows to great advantage ; and, from its elevated site, 
you have extensive views on either side of the surrounding pictur- 
esque country. The quaint old city lies chiefly in the valley, a few 
only of its streets climbing up towards the Cathedral, and a large 
ancient castle — now converted to a University — also crowning the 
cliffs on the same plateau, several hundred feet north of it. 

" The statue of the cow you desired me to inquire about when I 
left New York, occupies a broad arched niche in the north-east tower 
of the Cathedral, twenty feet or more above the level of the surround- 
ing church-yard. The cow is an unmistakable Short-horn all over, 
the legs excepted, which the learned librarian of the Cathedral, the 
Rev. James Raine, informed me, were chiseled unnaturally coarse, by 
fault alone of the sculptor ; otherwise it is a tolerable representation 
of a good animal. The two attendant milkmaids in the group are 



SECOND PERIOD OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 



21 



quite characteristic. The style of the cow is that of long-gone years, 
when the Short-horns were less refined than now. She is represented 
in moderate condition, with full udder and large milk veins, just as 
one would appear when yielding a full flow of milk. The present 
statue is comparatively modern, being a copy of the original, which 
was taken down and too much broken to be replaced when the tower 
was repaired, between the years 1790 and 1800, as near as I could 
ascertain. The Cathedral was finished about the year 1300, when 
the original design was probably sculptured and set. The figures, it 




will be observed, are altogether disproportioned, the maids being too 
high and the cow too low in stature. It will also be seen that parts 
of the cow have been mutilated, a part of the tail and two of the 
teats broken off. 



22 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

" In regard to the curious old monkish legend, of finding a peace- 
ful rest here at last for the bones of St. Cuthbert, the patron Saint of 
Durham Cathedral, it is of such length, and so variously told, that it 
would exhaust your patience to follow it up in all its twistings and 
turnings. I will therefore give you the substance of it, condensed 
from what I am informed is the most reliable account : 

" Know, then, that the mighty St. Cuthbert, famed for royal de- 
scent, and many and great virtues, died so long ago as the 20th of 
the calend of March, Anno Domini, 687, and was buried in Holy 
Island, a meet place indeed for so worthy and sanctified a man. 
Here his body rested in peace for the space of two centuries, when 
Bishop Eardulphus, and the Abbot Eadred, fearing that it would be 
disturbed in the terrible devastations which the Danes and other 
ruthless pagans began to commit in the neighborhood, exhumed the 
remains, and carried them, for re-interment, to Cuneagestre, sit- 
uated a few miles from Dunholme, (now Durham,) where they 
remained one hundred and thirteen years, till the dreadful pagan war 
had nearly ended. Bishop Aldwinus then removed the holy body of 
St. Cuthbert to Ripon, in Yorkshire, to lay it by the side of another 
famous holy body, namely, that of St. Winfred, who was buried in 
the renowned Cathedral of that place. But after four months from 
this time, the Danish forays having entirely ceased, it was determined 
to carry St. Cuthbert back to Cuneagestre, and re-inter him where he 
had remained so peacefully before for upwards of a century. In 
bearing him thither, all at once, at a place called Wardenlawe, Bishop 
Aldwinus and his monks were stayed in their progress, and with all 
their force could not remove the body any farther, for it seemed fas- 
tened to the ground. At this strange and unforeseen accident, they 
were greatly astonished, and their hearts deeply exercised ; where- 
upon they fasted and prayed three whole days with great devotion, 
to know by revelation from God, what to do with the holy body. At 
the end of this time it was revealed to Eadmer, one of the most 
virtuous of the monkish brotherhood, that St. Cuthbert should be 
carried to Dunholme, where he was to be received as his final resting 
place. But now came the great difficulty, for not one of the monks 
knew where Dunholme lay. Yet trusting to Providence to indicate 
it to them in some way, they took up the body again, and with con- 
fiding hearts proceeded on their journey. Presently they overheard 
a woman calling to another whom she met, that her cow had strayed 
away and was lost, and asked if she had seen her. 'Yes,' was the 
reply, 'just beyond, in Dunholme.' This was a happy and heavenly 



WHEN THE IMPROVEMENT BEGAN. 23 

sound to the distressed Bishop Aldwinus and his brethren, who 
thereby had intelligence that their journey's end was at hand. 
Being guided thither by these women, they at once constructed a 
little church of wands and branches, wherein to lay their Saint till a 
larger and more solid building could be raised to enshrine him. This 
was soon done by the erection of a Cathedral of moderate size, which 
in the year 1093 was taken down, and the corner-stone of the present 
magnificent Durham Cathedral was then laid. After being finished, 
in gratitude to the milkmaids and cow, by whose means the final rest- 
ing place for the holy body of St. Cuthbert had been found, their 
statues were placed in a conspicuous niche of the north-east tower, 
where it is to be hoped they will be allowed to remain as long as this 
mighty fane shall stand, whose foundations, in accordance with the 
instructions to us of scripture, have been laid upon a rock. " 

It is unnecessary to say more of the early establishment of the 
ancestors of the present Short-horn race in the north-eastern counties 
(Northumbria) of England, for some centuries occupied by the Danes 
before the conquest. 

When Began the Improvement in Short-horns. 

It has been asserted by some English cattle writers that it was 
early after the year 1700 that the improvement of their cattle was 
begun by the breeders, and that such improvement was aided by the 
importation of a bull or bulls from Holland. This assertion, how- 
ever, is merely a conjecture. No official record of the introduction 
of any such bull or bulls has been found ; and as no evidence of 
any such occurrence being even probable has been authentically 
recorded by revenue officials along the eastern coast of England in 
the counties where such importation would have been made, if at all, 
in a search extending near a century back of 1750, the conjecture or 
supposition of the introduction of the Dutch. bulls may be not only 
doubted, but denied.* Indeed, no positive instance of any such im- 
portation is asserted by the cattle historians of that day, and the 
evidence of such being the fact was only hearsay. Aside from this 
negative testimony to the contrary, a statute of Parliament enacted 
in the eighteenth year of Charles II. (1666), positively forbade the 
importation of cattle from abroad into England, and that statute was 
strictly enforced until the year 1801, a time fifty years or more sub- 
sequent to the pretended importation of any bulls or cows from 
Holland. We might, from documents now before us, go into a 

* " Youatt's Cattle" — American Edition— Article Short-horns. 



24 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

labored statement of the pro and con assertions relating to such im- 
portations; but as nothing positive, beyond tradition, conjecture, 
hearsay, or supposition has been advanced to establish the fact of 
such importation, and the act of Parliament and the Custom records 
positively deny it, further remark is unnecessary. 

To account for so many Short-horns being white in color, some of 
the cattle writers have asserted that this feature came from the wild 
white cattle in the parks of Chillingham in Northumberland, and 
Craven in Yorkshire, which had, almost from time immemorial, run 
in enclosures there, wild and untamable, as buffaloes. Aside from 
a likeness in color, these wild cattle had hardly a feature in common 
with the Short-horns. They were high -horned, black-nosed, light of 
body, long of limb, altogether opposite to the others. The supposi- 
tion that the white color in the Short-horns was derived from the 
wild race is but pretension. On the contrary, there were, and still 
are, white cattle in Denmark. It is, and has ever been, a legitimate 
color in the Short-horn race. 

Another fact may be asserted, even admitting that either the Dutch 
or the wild blood had been crossed into the original Danish blood, 
the period at which it took place was so long anterior to the time of 
the writers who claimed it, that even then scarcely a hundredth part 
of those bloods could be traced into the good Short-horn cattle of 
their day, and so infinitesimally small could it be now, that fractions 
can hardly compute it. 

Thus, the claim of the Dutch blood, and the origin of the white 
color of the wild cattle in the Short-horns, by these writers, may 
be dismissed as apocryphal. So late as the year 1780, more 
than ninety years ago, as related on good authority, a tradition 
was then current among the cattle breeders of Durham and York- 
shire, that for two hundred years previous, running back to 1580, 
there had existed a race of superior Short-horns on the Yorkshire 
estates of the Earls and Dukes of Northumberland,* one of the 
most ancient families among the nobles of England. Their family 
name was Percy, and the Barony of Percy was founded in the year 
1299. The family through its successive Barons, Earls and Dukes, 
was rich, powerful, and influential. Located near the Scottish bor- 
der, and subjected to the wild raids of the northern clansmen, they 

* Mr. A. B. Allen, in the year 1841, soon after his return from England, where he had spent 
some weeks in the Short-horn districts, informed us that in Durham an ancient record remains, 
showing that these cattle, in great excellence, existed four hundred years ago, say in 1440 ; but 
what the standard of excellence in that remote day was, is now difficult to know. 



WHEN THE IMPROVEMENT BEGAN. 25 

were brave by instinct, warlike by necessity, enterprising by educa- 
tion, rich by inheritance. Their estates were vast, and to their ear- 
lier grants from the Crown, they added largely both by purchase and 
marriage. They had the means to apply the agricultural improvements 
of the generations through which they had passed, and no doubt 
many of the heads of the family had the sagacity to adopt them. 
Among those improvements none were more probable, as theirs was 
eminently a grazing country, than that their attention had been turned 
to their neat cattle. In the earlier part of the eighteenth century the 
title of Earl of Northumberland became extinct by the death of the 
last male heir of the Percy family. . The "proud Duke of Somerset," 
as history records him, had married the daughter then representing 
the Northumberland title and estates.* The issue of the marriage 
was only a daughter, and she a Percy on the side of her mother. 
This daughter married Sir Hugh Smithson, and having children, 
Sir Hugh, in the year 1766, was raised to the peerage, with the title 
of Duke of Northumberland. "So fond was he of his Short-horns 
that his peers quizzingly dubbed him 'the Yorkshire grazier.' He 
was in the habit of weighing his cattle, and the food they ate, so as 
to ascertain the improvement they made for the food consumed." 
Sir Hugh's active life was about midway and later in the years of 
the eighteenth century. 

A hundred years earlier than the time of Sir Hugh, there existed 
fine stocks of Short-horn cattle in Durham and Yorkshire. " The 
Aislabies, residents of Studley Park, had very fine cattle in the seven- 
teenth century. f The Blacketts, of Newby Hall, in Northumberland, 



* An anecdote is thus related of the "proud Duke" : His Percy wife dying early, he was 
again married to a lady of less rank in the peerage. The Duke being one day closely engaged in 
his room, looking over some important papers, his wife stepped softly up behind and tapped him 
familiarly on the shoulder. He suddenly turned around and with a severe expression exclaimed, 
" Madam, your familiarity is altogether inopportune. Recollect that my first wife was a Percy ! " 

t In a letter to us from our brother, the late Richard L. Allen, of New York, (a warm admirer 
of Short-horn cattle,) when in Yorkshire, Eng., August, 1869, he writes of a visit to Studley: 

" I spent a few hours at Studley Park, attracted thither by the ruins of Fountain's Abbey. Its 
graceful, undulating and massive old trees ; one section of long, natural and now decaying oaks, 
of great circumference, and low but wide-spreading tops ; another of immense beeches, which 
are of a different species from ours, tall and very wide-spread, and with drooping branches, which 
sometimes lie on the ground, fifty feet distant from the trunk ; and then a stately chestnut in full 
bloom ; double rows of the lime and elm, almost as fine as the beeches, and many firs of stalwart 
size, give to the park a great attraction. ******* 

" I asked the guide if there was any herdsman who could tell me about the cattle, and he said 
there was none. I presume the interest in the Short-horns on the estate died with Mr. Aislabie. 
His father was originally a private country gentleman, who became Lord Chancellor, and inher- 
ited the estate from the Mallorys, who owned it through several generations, his mother being 
the last heir. His son, William, who was in Parliament sixty years, was the great improver of 



26 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

paid great attention to Short-horn cattle at the same time with the 
Aislabies. Portraits of these animals were occasionally taken and 
hung up to adorn the entrance of the hall ; but when the noble resi- 
dence passed out of their hands those pictures were sold. We should 
hope that they yet exist in some old curiosity shop, and if so, and 
can be found, we shall then have a definite idea of what one family 
of ancient Short-horns were."* 

There can be no question, as our following narrative will show, 
that many valuable Short-horns, descended from and largely im- 
proved in appearance and quality over the ancient race, then existed 
in those counties, and were distributed in the hands of many differ- 
ent breeders. To what degrees of excellence they had then attained 
we do not know, nor do we know but a portion of the names of those 
several breeders ; but at a later day, when their cattle had assumed 
a consequence and celebrity sufficient to attract the attention of 
agricultural writers a hundred years ago, they were chronicled in 
the books and agricultural surveys of their neighborhoods as of 
extraordinary value, and remarkable specimens of their race. The 
cows were described as large milkers, and the bullocks as attaining 
a great weight of carcass, and extraordinary productions of tallow. 

Aside from the herds on the Yorkshire, Durham and Northumber- 
land estates, we have a few names, of the then conspicuous Short-horn 
breeders in the earlier part, or before the middle of the eighteenth 
century, (1750.) Among them are Mr. Milbank, of Barningham, Sir 
William St. Quintin, of Scampston, Sir James Pennyman, of York- 
shire, and others of less noble rank, showing that the attention of 
some of the most respectable landholders was alive to the improve- 
ment of their cattle. It is recorded that Mr. Milbank bred and fed 
a five year old ox which, when slaughtered, the four quarters weighed 
2104 pounds, the tallow 224 pounds, and the hide 151 pounds. Also, 



the grounds and estate, and I presume was the one who did so much for the Short-horns. On 
his death the property went to his co-heir and relative, Mrs. Allanson, and on her death, in 1803, 
to her niece, Mrs. Lawrence, and on her death, in 1854, to the present Earl De Grey, now a mem- 
ber of Gladstone's Cabinet, who, although a man of mark in his way, I suspect cares very little 
for country life or the improvement of his estate, as he resides on it but seldom, and his neighbors 
have little to say of him in this respect, as they had of the Aislabies and their lady successors." 

The above mentioned Earl De Grey was one of the late "Joint High Commission," who nego- 
tiated the treaty between the United States and England at Washington, in the year 1871. 

It is to be regretted that the descendants of the once noble Short-horns which ranged over that 
lordly domain, should not still occupy the ground of their progenitors, which they long ago graced 
in their picturesque colors and comely proportions. A poetic charm still hangs about the atmos- 
phere of Studley, coupled with the once aristocratic presence of its Short-horns. — L. F. A. 

* A. B. Allen, in American Agriculturist, A. D. 1841. 



PROGRESS OF IMPROVEMENT. 27 

a cow from Mr. Milbank's stock, afterwards belonging to Mr. Sharter, 
of Chilton, which, when slaughtered, at twelve years old, having pro- 
duced several calves, her quarters weighed 1540 pounds. She was 
daughter to the celebrated "Studley bull" (626), he being calved in 
the year 1737. 

This brings us forward to a period at which some intelligent ink- 
ling is had of the existence of Short-horn cattle in the hands of 
known breeders, and of an excellence in style, weight and quality 
commanding the attention of agricultural historians, and at about 
what date the known ancestors of our later Short-horn tribes, or fam- 
ilies can, with a considerable degree of certainty, trace their lineage. 
It is possible that some errors, both of fact and inference, may have 
crept into the various accounts in those early days of Short-horn 
breeding ; but we have sufficient evidence of the antiquity of the 
race, and the lines in which they had descended, down to the year 
1750. Soon after that time records began to be kept of their lineage, 
as purity of blood was considered of vital consequence. 

The colors of the cattle in those days were red, of different shades, 
red and white, pure white, frequently white on the body with roan 
necks and heads, and roan of red and white intermixed over the 
body, or in patches, with either more of the white or of the red pre- 
vailing, as now. What was their exact quality, style or symmetry, as 
compared with the choice Short-horns of the present time, it is diffi- 
cult to say, as we have no accurate portraits of them ; but that they 
combined the main points of excellence belonging to the race as now 
recognized, and in which still higher improvements over them have 
been made in the cattle of later years, we can have little doubt. 

Thus, we have seen the Short-horns from the ancient race existing 
in Northumbria anterior to its conquest by William of Normandy — 
otherwise the Conqueror — within a few years after his landing at 
Hastings in the year 1066, brought down through a series of seven 
hundred years, steadily improving, with the progress of the English 
people in their agricultural advancement into a condition of excel- 
lence then unequaled, probably, by any contemporary race of cattle 
in the British islands or the neighboring continent, and that excellence 
attained through their own blood alone, uncontaminated by any 
foreign element, or if occasionally so, to such small degree as to be 
unrecognized in the predominating merits of the original race. 



28 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 



CHAPTER II. 

The Early Breeders — Dates and Names of Noted 
Animals. 

Arriving at a point of time about the year 1750, or a little later, 
we find the Short-horns a recognized breed, and that great pains had 
been taken with their cultivation by intelligent landholders, as well 
as a dissemination of their blood into the hands of enterprising tenant 
farmers. Such we learn from the records of agricultural writers 
through the later years of the last century, and the earlier ones of 
the present. We now proceed to a broader field of operation, and a 
more intimate discussion of their merits in the possession of breed- 
ers, by name, as well as of noted animals, then individually known 
and recorded. 

The field of operation is still the ancient Northumbria, the most 
active movements are within the counties of York and Durham, in 
and about the valley of the Tees. From the years 1730 to 1780, 
many eminent breeders are named, and among them, besides those 
already mentioned, are Sharter, Pickering, Stephenson, Wetherell, 
Maynard, Dobison, Charge, Wright, Hutchinson, Robson, Snowdon, 
Waistell, Richard and William Barker, Brown, Hall, Hill, Best, Wat- 
son, Baker, Thompson, Jackson, Smith, Jolly, Masterman, Wallace, 
Robertson, and some others. These names we find as breeders of 
the earliest cattle whose names and pedigrees are recorded in the 
first volume of the English Herd Book. It may be well to know 
that as this Herd Book was not published until the year 1822, (some 
thirty to forty years after many of the names we have mentioned had 
left the stage of active life,) tradition, and the memory of men then 
living, as well as written records of their predecessors, were the 
authorities on which the lineage of the earlier animals were admitted 
to its pages. 

Confining the present relation to a period anterior to the year 1780, 
the earliest named animal on record is "Studley bull" (626), "red 
and white, bred by Mr. Sharter, of Chilton." This is all the Herd 
Book says of him. He was calved in 1737, and of the Barningham 



STUD LEY BULL. 



2 9 



(Milbank) stock, which came from Studley, in Yorkshire, where they 
had existed for many years. He is described, by one who often saw 
him, as having possessed wonderful girth, and depth of fore quarters, 
very short legs, a neat frame, and light offal. He was the grandsire of 
Dalton Duke (188). This latter bull was bred by Mr. Charge, and 
sold by him at the then high price of fifty guineas, to Messrs. May- 
nard and YVetherell, in whose possession he served cows at half a 
guinea each. From Studley bull came "Lakeland's bull," which was 
the sire of William Barker's bull (51), which was the sire of Richard 
Barker's bull (52), both noted as the sires of many of the best early 
Short-horns of their day. Studley bull was also sire of the cow 
Tripes, bred by Mr. Pickering. The dam of Tripes was bred by 
Mr. Stephenson, of Ketton, in the year 1739. From her originated 
Mr. S.'s Princess tribe. 

It may be noted here that in the earlier recorded pedigrees — notes 
or memoranda, rather — only one or two crosses are given, with the 
name of the sire only, and but rarely the name of a dam given at all. 
In many other instances the name only of the recorded bull is given, 
without any allusion to breeder, owner, sire or dam ; simply recog- 
nizing him as a Short-horn, from which other recorded animals are 
descended. 

To "Studley bull" can be traced a larger number of the early 
recorded Short-horns than to any other one of which we have a par- 
ticular knowledge. His blood was well known, and popular, and 
being of the Milbank stock, was probably as pure in descent as any 
then in existence. He may be termed one of the principal progen- 
itors of the Short-horn race, as they stand recorded in the Herd 
Book from its first volume down to the present, although not the only 
one, as numerous others, no doubt, existed contemporary with him, 
sires to many noted tribes of a later day. We speak of him only as 
more is known of him than of them, he having a Herd Book record, 
and they not. 

Another noted bull maybe named into whose blood probably more 
of the later pedigrees can be traced to, and ending in him, than to any 
other, viz. : James Brown's red bull (97). The date of his birth is 
not recorded, but it was probably between 1765 and 1770. He was 
bred by John Thompson, of Girlington Hall, and got by William 
Barker's bull (51), which is all the Herd Book says of him. On the 
side of his sire, he was a great grandson of Studley bull. His dam 
is not named, and we have no record of his blood on her side. 
Indeed, there seems to have been but little care taken in those days 



30 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

to give the names of dams if they had names at all. We are to pre- 
sume, however, that they were pure Short-horns, as there is no prob- 
ability of bulls being recorded by the discriminating breeders of the 
time unless their lineage, as well as forms, was of the best standard ; 
therefore the purity of their blood may remain unquestioned. 

From all the accounts we have been able to gather, the cows of 
that day were good milkers, and capable, when retired from breeding, 
and the dairy, of yielding heavy carcasses of beef. These qualities 
were, of course, imparted to their descendants, and perpetuated as 
we find many of them at the present day. 

We note many bulls in the first volume of the English Herd Book 
that lived anterior to the year 1780, but aside from their names and 
that of a sire, and sometimes a grandsire, little or nothing seems 
to have been' recorded of their ancestry, and nothing beyond can 
now be known of them. Among these, in addition to those already 
named, are Alcock's (Ralph) bull (19), Allison's gray bull (26), Bartle 
(63), J. Brown's white bull (98), Dalton Duke (188), Danby (190), 
Davison's bull (192), Dobson's bull (218), Harrison's bull (292) [his 
record only says, "bred by Mr. Waistell ;" the late Mr. Thomas 
Bates, in a private note to the record of Harrison's bull, states that 
he was got by Studley bull (626), dam Mr. Waistell's cow Barforth], 
Hill's red bull (310), Hollon's bull (313), Hubback (319) [of which 
more hereafter], Jolly's bull (337) [nothing but his name is recorded], 
K-itt (357) [nothing but his name is recorded], Ladykirk (355), 
Manfield (404), Masterman's bull (422) [got by Studley bull], Pad- 
dock's bull (477), Robson's (William) bull (538), Signior (588), Sir 
James Pennyman's bull (601), Smith's (Jacob) bull (608), Smith's (T.) 
bull (609), Snowdon's bull (612) [sire of Hubback (319)], Studley 
White bull (627) [got by Studley bull (626)], Waistell's bull (669) 
[the same as Robson's bull (558)], Walker's bull (670) [the same as 
Masterman's bull (422)]. 

The above named, of the 710 recorded bulls in Vol. 1, E. H. B., 
are all, probably, as near as can be ascertained (of record), that 
lived previous to, or about the year 1780, and a few years afterwards, 
and probably a great majority of the pedigrees of the present time, 
if their lineage could be traced, might run back into the blood of 
one, or the other, or several of them. 

Of the cows, contemporary with the bulls we have named, few, if 
any, are recorded in either the first, or subsequent volumes. We 
can, therefore, only infer that the cows were equally as well and 
carefully bred as the bulls. Cattle fairs, (not s/w7i>s, as our modern 



THE COLLING BROTHERS. 3 1 

exhibitions are improperly called fairs,) where beasts were taken 
to market for sale, were then common in England, as now, and prob- 
ably many well-bred cows' and heifers were brought there by their 
breeders, and owners, and the breeders of choice cattle bought 
them, when their blood and quality were considered worthy of such 
use, and bred to their choice bulls. From such market cows descended 
the more immediate ancestors of many celebrated Short-horns since. 
It is no disparagement to those nameless cows that such is the fact, 
as very few pedigrees can now be traced by name, on the female side, 
beyond the year 1780, and but comparatively few, among a great 
majority of them, beyond the year 1800. 

To show what was the general character of the Short-horns of the 
time above written, we quote Bailey, who made an agricultural sur- 
vey of Durham, and wrote in the year 1S10: "The cattle on both 
sides of the Tees have been known by the appellation of the Tees- 
water breed. About 1740, their color was red and white, and white, 
with a little red about the neck, or roan." In "Thornton's Circular," 
of January, 1869, published in London, in an account of "Ancient 
Short-horns," the writer remarks: "Mr. John Wright, born at Low- 
fields, near Catterick, in 1784, a well-known judge, and who was 
originally proposed as the author of the Herd Book, says, that his 
earliest recollections of the Short-horns were large, massive, expan- 
sive cows, with great width and substance, hardy constitutions, mostly 
red and white spotted, white bodies, necks spotted with red or roan, 
ears red and head white, frequently black noses, and rather long, 
waxy horns." Although these recollections may run down near or 
quite to the year 1800, it is probable that they give the features 
generally prevailing among the Short-horns of the time. 

Although we might give further accounts from different sources — 
meager, however, at the best — of the Short-horns as they existed 
anterior to, or about the period of 1780, it is hardly worth while to 
cumber our pages with simply collateral testimony, (for that is all 
there would be of it,) and we proceed to a new era in- their history, 
from which we are able to gather decided particulars of fact, irre- 
spective of tradition, or common rumor. 

The Short-horns at and after the year 1780 — Robert 
and Charles Colling. 

The reason why, in our previous remarks, we have made, and now 
again make, a point of the year 1780, or thereabouts, is, that near 
that period an era commenced by the action of a new class of men, 



32 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

or rather by a more intelligent appreciation of the value of Short- 
horns by those interested in their propagation. 

This change of sentiment and action was partially introduced by 
two young men, brothers, just beginning active business life on their 
own account, Robert and Charles Colling. They were sons of a 
substantial farmer living in the valley of the Tees, who had many 
years been a Short-horn cattle breeder. He brought up his sons in 
his own pursuit, and no doubt aided them with an outfit, for it 
appears that they were each enabled to occupy a good farm in the 
year 1783, not a far distance apart, stock it with the necessary appli- 
ances, and commence in a spirited way the breeding of Short-horns. 
That they were intelligent, sagacious, enterprising, there can be little 
doubt, as their subsequent career was altogether successful. 

In writing what follows, and saying much of the operations of the 
Colling brothers, it is not that we feel any partiality for them over 
oilier breeders of their time, but because more historical matter has 
been given relating to them and their proceedings than of other 
breeders contemporary with them, and further, that their course of 
breeding has been more freely commented upon during and since 
the time they were on the stage of action. It has been asserted that 
they were the chief and real improvers of the Short-horn race, and to 
them has been ascribed the great merit and glory of raising them 
from an obscure breed in a narrow locality, into the peerless excel- 
lence and popularity they have since enjoyed wherever they have 
obtained a foothold, and proved successful in their breeding. We 
say such has been asserted — sometimes by those who know nothing 
about it, other than by information through partial publications of 
incidents in the Codings' career, and sometimes by others who had a 
particular partiality for them through the stock descended from their 
herds; and the assertion has been as strongly denied by others. 
This question of their improvement of the Short-horns will be dis- 
cussed hereafter. 

We propose to state all the facts which have come within our 
knowledge relating to the Collings in their course of cattle breeding, 
and the results which have followed it. From such facts the reader 
may draw his own conclusions of their correctness, or otherwise. 
The results determined by the extended practice in breeding by the 
Collings have been too long discussed, both in England and the 
United States, by those who have considered themselves masters in 
the studies of natural history and physiology, to set up our own judg- 
ment in decision, either one way or the other. We have opinions, 






THE COLLING BROTHERS. 33 

however, and may give them at a proper time as different subjects of 
discussion may arise, but knowing that different opinions may be as 
honestly held, and as freely discussed as our own, we do not choose 
to bias the judgment of others, or rule their conclusions. We aim to 
write history, and nothing else, in what relates to Short-horn progress 
and improvement. 

Robert Colling, the elder brother, settled on a farm at Barmpton, 
and Charles, the younger, on another farm at Ketton, which latter 
one had been for many previous years occupied by their father, within 
a short distance of the Tees, and but a short way apart from each 
other, in the neighborhood of Darlington. Practical farming among 
the higher classes of nobility had become respectable. His Majesty, 
the third George, the first of the Guelph dynasty born in hmgland, 
had become much interested in the cultivation of his royal acres at 
Windsor. He was a stock breeder too, as well as a farmer. Although 
intractable and pertinacious, as were his Guelph progenitors, in affairs 
of state, he was a sober prince, fond of country life, and a lover of 
fine farm stock. Placable in domestic life, with his cousin-Cerrnan 
Queen, quite as domestic as himself, and their large family of chil- 
dren, he spent much of his time at the palace of Windsor, supervising 
and directing his farm. In his various attentions to stock breeding 
His Majesty had made the acquaintance of the celebrated Robert 
Bakewell, a stock raiser and farmer in Leicestershire, who had acquired 
a wide reputation in breeding up the "Long-horned" cattle of his 
district into an excellence of quality hitherto unknown. Bakewell 
had also given a new variety of long-wooled sheep to the kingdom, 
by a careful course of breeding from the rather scraggy-bodied, long- 
wools then prevalent in his vicinity. To such excellence and popu- 
larity had he raised these sheep that they afterwards assumed the 
several names of New Leicester, Dishley, (the name of his farm,) 
and Bakewell, as those who purchased from him and bred them chose 
to call the improved variety. 

Bakewell was born in the year 1726, and died in 1795. He had 
pursued his vocation as a breeder long and successfully, became 
wealthy, was a man of large hospitality — for a farmer of those days — 
received many visits from noblemen of rank, who sought his advice 
in improving their farm stock, and among others George the Third 
had made him visits on the same errand, consulting him freely, and 
buying of his stock. Bakewell's system of breeding was his own, 
widely different from the usual practice of the English stock breeders 
of his day, and with him entirely original, as then considered. He 
3 



34 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

was a good animal physiologist. He cut up and dissected various 
carcasses of his sheep and cattle, examined their flesh, bones and 
sinews, put them in pickle, and afterwards hung them up in his lab- 
oratory for further observation. He was a profound master of his 
business, and perhaps the originator of a new system of breeding by 
which, in his own hands, his success was triumphantly acknowledged 
over any other stock breeder of his time. It is probable that to his 
efforts and example England at this day owes her unrivaled breed of 
long-wooled sheep. His selection of the breed of cattle on which to 
exercise his skill was not so happy. Although of an ancient race, 
they were not generally popular with the farmers in and beyond the 
counties immediately surrounding Leicestershire ; yet he raised them 
to a capacity for acquiring flesh never before equaled. Although 
now' existing, and of excellent quality in limited herds — perhaps 
quite equal to those which Bakewell improved — the Long-horns have 
not attained wide popularity as a race. 

Bakewell also bred the common cart or dray horse of England 
into enormous size and symmetry, which they hold to the present 
time ; and all by one persistent course of breeding, good food, and 
watchful care. His system with all these animals was, first to select, 
wherever he could find them, and of the best blood, those as near a 
proper form for the purposes he needed as was possible, and then by 
breeding them to their own family blood alone, only going out of it 
for other selections when he could find a better, which was seldom, 
until he brought them to the points of excellence in form and quality 
that he wanted. This was "in-and-in breeding;" and although not 
concurred in by the common sentiment of humanity, so far as its own 
race is concerned, Bakewell and others who have since followed his 
example most closely, have decided, indeed proved, that under proper 
selections of the animals so paired together, the practice has resulted 
in the highest success. Such was Bakewell's practice. He may be 
said to have introduced the modern system of improved stock breed- 
ing — whatever may have been known to the ancients, and since lost — 
and as such improver, his name will go down to posterity with grati- 
tude and honor. 

The young Collings were sagacious men, Charles the more active 
and enterprising, although Robert was equally sound in judgment as 
a breeder ; and they were admirably fitted to work in unison so far 
as their views in breeding were concerned. Forecasting, as well as 
thoughtful in laying their plans for future action, they had heard of 
Bakewell and his improvements — for he had been at work thirty 



THE COLLING BROTHERS. 35 

years before the Collings began — his fame was abroad through the 
chief stock-breeding counties of England, and had long before 
reached the precincts of the Tees. At the outset of the brothers' 
career in breeding, they paid Bakewell repeated visits, closely exam- 
ined his stock, saw the improvements he had made in them over 
the faulty originals from which he had reared them, and took many 
shrewd lessons in his manner of proceeding. They bought improved 
sheep of him, divided them with each other, and followed his prac- 
tice in breeding them. The system adopted by Bakewell the Collings 
determined to pursue with their Short-horns, which they had now 
selected for their own breeding. 

About the year 1780 — perhaps a year or two earlier, or later, for 
we have not the exact date of their beginning — the Collings became 
stock breeders before settling at Barmpton and Ketton. "The best 
specimens of Short-horns of that time, generally, were wide-backed, 
well-framed cows, deep in their fore quarters, soft and mellow in 
their hair and 'handling,' and possessing, with average milking qual- 
ities, a remarkable disposition to fatten. Their horns were rather 
longer than those of their descendants of the present day, and widen- 
ing upwards. The faults were those of an undue prominence of the 
hip and shoulder joints, a want of length in the hind quarters, of 
width in the floor of the chest, of fullness generally before and behind 
the shoulders, as well as upon the shoulder itself. They had a 
somewhat disproportionate abdomen [large bellies], too long in the 
legs, and a want of substance, indicative of delicacy in the hide. 
They failed also in the essential requisite of taking on their flesh 
evenly and firmly over the whole frame, which frequently gave them 
an unlevel appearance. There was, moreover, a general want of 
compactness in their conformation."* Of such material, mainly — 
although some of the Tees breeders had cattle with more of the 
good qualities, and less faulty than others — the Collings found the 
Teeswater, or Short-horn cattle, when they began their course as 
breeders. It is evident that the animals needed improvement, and 
that of a radical kind. 

We have already recited the weights of some of the cattle anterior 
to the Collings. From them we know that they could be fed to an 
extraordinary weight, whatever the precise quality of their flesh 
might prove, or the amount of offal they threw off. Culley, after 
many years earlier Short-horn experience and observation, writing 

* Mr. Carr, of Stackhouse, in his history of the Booth Short-horns. 



36 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

in the year 1803, says; "The great obstacle to improvement was 
that no Dull should be used to the same stock more than three years ; 
if kept longer the breed would be too near akin, and produce tender, 
diminutive stock, liable to disorders." Bakewell, however, had upset 
all this nonsense by persistently breeding in-and-in his own cattle and 
sheep through all possible degrees of consanguinity, and the Collings 
adopting his theory at the outset, determined to put BakeweH's course 
into practice. 

Here, then, were the two young breeders — Robert about the age 
of thirty, living a bachelor, and Charles a year or two younger, and 
married — settled in their vocation in the very home of the Short- 
horns, surrounded by a wide neighborhood of veteran breeders, life- 
long engaged in the business, in which their capital, pride and ambition 
were all enlisted. From the herds of those breeders the Collings 
could select at pleasure, without a heavy drainage on their purses, for 
prices in fine cattle had not yet taken a. fancy altitude in that locality. 
The depression of agricultural values then caused by the late French 
and American wars had reduced them to their minimum. A pleas- 
ant time the young men must have had in ranging over the country, 
examining the herds and selecting their stock, with ample means in 
their pockets to command the best of them, and embark in a business 
so full of interest, expectation and profit. Educated to the pursuit 
by a shrewd, managing father, though possessing the same notions in 
breeding as were held by his neighbors, the sons had the sagacity 
to believe that improvement was within their reach, and their visits 
to Bakewell had confirmed it. What were the earliest purchases 
they made, who from, or the names of the cattle, history has given 
no record. 

Robert and Charles were at first in partnership, but separated when 
going to their separate farms at Barmpton and Ketton, which took 
place some time about the year 1783. Still, they bred more or less in 
conjunction, frequently using the same bulls, alternating as they either 
chose, or agreed, but each having his own cows, and they drawn 
from the different herds around them. 

Hubback. 

Having early begun their course of breeding by obtaining several 
good cows, we now introduce another distinguished animal into the 
Colling herds, whose blood, coursing through the descendants of 
those cows and others in their hands, constituted an era in the Short- 
horn breeding of that day. This was no less than the famous bull 



HUBBACK. 37 

Hubback, in the hands of Mr. Waistell, of Ali-hill, and Robert Col- 
ling, about whose history there has been more controversy, guess- 
work, inference, and error, probably, than in that of any early 
Short-horn bull whatever ; and for a part of this error the world is 
indebted to the Rev. Henry Berry, who wrote the brief Short-horn 
history in Youatt's "British Cattle," in the year 1834, and, as we 
think, from interested motives of his own, being a Short-horn breeder 
himself, and having an object in prejudicing the public against the 
purity of Hubback's blood. Of Mr. Berry and his history, more will 
be said hereafter. 

We have investigated the subject of Hubback exhaustively, looked 
through all the authorities and controversies relating to him, which it 
would be tiresome and unprofitable to repeat at length, besides lead- 
ing the reader into a labyrinth of statements and counter-statements, 
out of which he might not arrive, after all, at a very accurate con- 
clusion.* His pedigree in Vol. 1, E. H. B., is here given: 

"(319.) Hubback. — Yellow red and white, calved in 1777, bred 
by Mr. John Hunter of Hurworth, got by Snowdon's bull (612), dam 
from the stock of Sir James Pennyman, and these from the stock of 
Sir William St. Quintin, of Scampston." 

This is all there is of the pedigree proper, although appended to it 
are references to the pedigree of Snowdon's bull through his differ- 
ent sires. 

That Snowdon's bull may be understood, his pedigree (all there is 
of it) is recorded in E. H. B., Vol. 1, as follows: 

"(612.) Snowdon's bull (sire of Hubback), got by Wm. Robson's 
bull (55S)." 

All the pedigree which Robson's bull has is, " got by James Mas- 
terman's bull (422)," and all that is said of Masterman's bull is, "got 
by Studley bull (626)." 

Accompanying the pedigree of Hubback is also a certificate, as 
follows : 

" I remember the cow which my father bred, that was the dam of 
Hubback ; there was no idea then that she had any mixed or Kyloe 
blood in her. Much has been lately said, that she was descended 
from a Kyloe ; but I have no reason to believe, nor do I believe, that 
she had any Kyloe blood in her. John Hunter. 

Hurworth, near Darlington, July 6, 1822." 

* For a full and exhaustive discussion of the question see "Youatt's Cattle," American Edi- 
tion ; also its account of Hubback, by the American Editor, extracted and printed in Vol. 2, 
American Short-horn Herd Book. 



38 HISTORY OF THE SHORT- HORNS. 

This certificate was made by the son of Hubback's breeder, forty- 
five years after the bull's birth, and at the time he was recorded in 
the Herd Book. Mr. Hunter's recollection of the charge of Kyloe* 
blood in the cow was probably quite distinct. He had undoubtedly 
heard it talked over at the time when the bull's merits were ascer- 
tained and discussed, and from the very accurate description we have 
of the cow, there is little probability that she was any other than a 
pure Short-horn. At all events, the conceded merits attached to the 
bull as a getter of superior stock, in none of which do we find a 
cropping out of any other than Short-horn blood, (which would occa- 
sionally have been the case had he much of the Kyloe in him,) we 
may safely conclude that Hubback was as pure in blood as any other 
Short-horn of his time. 

On the sire's side of Hubback all appears fair, and only on the 
side of his dam were circulated, by some parties, a suspicion of 
Kyloe, or Scotch blood in his veins, which seems to be fully set at 
rest by the certificate of Mr. Hunter. A like innuendo was circulated 
by others, that Dutch blood had crept into Hubback by the rumor 
(without anything like proof, however), that Sir William. St. Quintin 
had, many years before, imported a bull or bulls, from Holland, and 
crossed them into his cows to improve their quality, and which blood 
had gone by descent into the stock of Sir James Pennyman. But, 
as in a previous page has been conclusively shown, we think, that no 
such Dutch importations had been made, these innuendoes, surmises 
and charges, all fall to the ground. 

The history of the cow— Hubback's dam — is simply this : She 
was bred by Mr. Stephenson, who had lived at Ketton before Charles 
Colling's day, and the ancestors of the cow had been in Mr. Stephen- 
son's possession for more than forty years, as he had long been a 
Short-horn breeder of the Pennyman and Studley stock. She was a 
small cow, of remarkably smooth and even qualities, and an excel- 
lent feeder. She had fine hair, a bright look, was a good milker, as 
were all the cows of her tribe, and no doubt imparted much of her 
good quality to her son, Hubback. How so much controversy could 
exist about her being of Kyloe descent, and thus damaging the 
integrity of Hubback — for it was only on her side that his blood 
could be assailed — is only to be accounted for in the jealousies and 
party spirit which was rife among the breeders of the time. The 
very fact, admitted by all authorities, that Hubback's begettings were 

* The Kyloes are the " West Highland " cattle of Scotland.— L. F. A.. 



II U 1) BACK. 39 

of superior quality — although from poor cows they were inferior to 
those of good ones — should be conclusive proof of his good descent, 
for if he had bad blood in him, it would, to a certainty, crop out in 
some of his progeny. Yet, aside from his meager pedigree, Hub- 
back had a personal history — a plain, straightforward one, attested 
by several different accounts, all agreeing in the main, and as such 
we give it. 

John Hunter, the breeder of Hubback, was a bricklayer, and 
lived in Hurworth. He had once been a tenant farmer, and bred 
Short-horn cattle, which, when leaving his farm to live in Hurwo'rth, 
he sold all off, excepting one choice little cow, which he took with 
him, and as he had no pasture of his own for her to graze in, she 
run in the lanes of the town. While there she was put to George 
"Snowdon's bull," also in Hurworth. From him the cow dropped a 
bull calf. Soon afterwards the cow and calf were driven to Darling- 
ton market, and there sold to a Mr. Bassnett, a timber merchant. 
Bassnett retained the cow, but sold the calf to a blacksmith at Hornby, 
five miles out from Darlington. The dam of the calf taking on flesh 
readily, would not again breed, and after some months was fattened 
and slaughtered. Growing to a useful age, the young bull, in 1783, 
was found at six years old, in the hands of a Mr. Fawcett, living at 
Haughton-hill, not far from Darlington. 

" Mr. Wright (a noted Short-horn breeder) says that Charles Col- 
ling going into Darlington market weekly, used to notice some 
excellent veal, and upon inquiry ascertained that the calves were got 
by a bull belonging to a Mr. Fawcett of Haughton-hill. This bull, 
then known as Fawcett 's bull, and some years afterwards called Hub- 
back, was, at the time, serving cows at a shilling each (about 22 cents). 
Charles Colling, however, as the merits of the beast were talked 
over between himself and others, did not appear particularly im- 
pressed with them. But Robert Colling and his neighbor, Mr. Wais- 
tell, of Ali-hill, who had also seen the bull, thought better of him, 
and more accurately measured his value. The two, soon after Good 
Friday, in April, 1783, bought him of Mr. Fawcett for ten guineas 
(about $52), and took him home, where he was jointly owned and 
used to their separate herds, Colling having seventeen and Waistell 
eleven cows, served by him during the season. In the following 
November (1783), Charles Colling having changed his opinion of the 
merits of the bull, offered his owners eight guineas (about $42) for 
him, and they sold him. Waistell had reserved, on his part of the 
sale, that Charles should let all his cows be served to the bull as long 



40 HISTORY OF THE SHORTHORNS. 

as the latter owned him, but Waistell sending a cow the following 
year, Colling refused the service unless paid five guineas for it.* The 
cow was driven home unserved, and Waistell had no cows sent to 
the bull afterwards. 

Charles Colling kept the bull two years, using him freely in his 
herd, and then sold him late in 1785, at ten years old, to a Mr. 
Hubback, at North Seton, in Northumberland. "The bull had no 
name when Colling sold him. Mr. Hubback used him (the bull then 
being called Hubback's bull) until the year 1791, when he was fourteen 
years old, and he was vigorous to the last. Mr. Thomas Bates saw 
him, and calves got by him, in 1790."! 

Thus, the story, written by Mr. Berry, that " Hubback was partly 
of Dutch blood, bought — when a calf, running by his mother's side 
in the lanes — by Waistell and Robert Colling, and both, including 
Charles Colling, using him but three years, when, by taking on so 
much flesh he became impotent, and was slaughtered," is all, but 
the three years' use, the sheerest invention. The facts, undoubtedly 
were, that neither Waistell nor either of the Collings, truly appreci- 
ated the merits of Hubback until after they had parted with him, 
and saw the excellence of his stock as they grew up and developed. 
He was a small bull ; his dam was small — for a Short-horn — but a 
very handsome cow, of fine symmetry, with a nice touch, and fine, 
long, mossy hair. All these choice qualities Hubback took from her, 
and his hair remained unusually late in the spring before shedding. 
As good size was a meritorious point in Short-horns at that time, it 
is highly probable that the Collings discarded him for that deficiency 
more than any other. Yet the subsequent reputation of Hubback, 
among the breeders, stood higher than that of any bull of his time, 
and it was considered a great merit in any Short-horn which could 
trace its pedigree back into his blood, which, no doubt, could be 
easily done, as he was, both before and after the Collings owned 
him, open to the public at a cheap rate of service. Other animals 
than those of Waistell and the Collings, recorded in the English Herd 
Book, trace their pedigrees back to Hubback. 

One more, and as we think, conclusive evidence may be added to 
the integrity of Hubback's Short-horn blood : " Mr. Charge, as well 
as Mr. Coates, and Charles Colling, always deemed Hubback a pure 
Short-horn ; and neither he nor his descendants when put on cows 

* From various transactions we have heard of him, with all his cleverness as a breeder, W 2 
' incline to the opinion that Charles Colling had an especial eye to his own interests. 
t American Edition of Youatt's British Cattle. 



THE STANWICK, OR ORIGINAL DUCHESS. 41 

. of the pure blood, begot any calves which denoted in their features 
or color any other breed than the pure Short-horn. His stock had 
capacious chests, prominent bosoms, thick, mossy coats, mellow skins, 
with a great deal of fine flesh, spread equally over the whole carcass, 
and were either red and white, yellow roans, or white."* 

It is said that in the year 1784, after coming into possession of 
Hubback (or Fawcett's bull), Charles Colling picked up several good 
cows, among them some got by Fawcett's bull ; but one of the most 
noted, as afterwards known in her descendants, was the " Stanwick 
cow" (the original of the "Duchess" tribe), which in June, 1784, 
was driven from the Stanwick estate of the Duke of Northumber- 
land,! m Yorkshire, to be sold in the Darlington market, and Colling 
being present when the cow was driven in, took an especial fancy to 
her fair qualities, and bought her at the low price of £13 ($65). 
" She was a massive, short-legged beast, breast near the ground, a great 
grower^ with wide back, and of a beautiful yellowish-red flaked 
color." J Colling called her Duchess. She was got by J. Brown's red 
bull (97), and no further pedigree of her was known. She was bred 
to Hubback, and through the produce of that coupling descended 
the since famous (through Mr. Bates' breeding on the female side) 
" Duchess " tribe of Short-horns. § 

During the two seasons that Charles Colling possessed Hubback 
we may suppose that he made diligent use of him in his herd, but we 
do not learn that the bull made a strong impression of his value, or he 
would not so soon have parted with him. At all events, the merits of 
his stock were not fully appreciated until some time after he had dis- 
posed of him, and Colling had become in possession, through 'other 
parties, of cows of his get anterior to his own use of the bull. 

* Thornton's Circular. 

t We have since heard it asserted that the "Stanwick" cow was not from the Stanwick estate, 
but from the neighboring one of Aldbrough, also belonging to the Northumberland domain ; but 
i: mutters little which of the farms produced the cow. She was of the Northumberland Short- 
horn blood, unquestionably. 

% Mr. Bates. 

S The Stanwick estate was said to have then been in the occupancy of Earl Percy, a son of Sir 
Hugh Smithson, before related as being raised to the peerage with the title of Duke of North- 
umberland, under the Percy succession. This Earl Percy held a commission in the British army, 
and was one of the party who attacked the American Provincial troops at Lexington, Mass., in 
the beginning of our Revolutionary War, and was for some years absent from home. He after- 
wards succeeded his father to the estates and title of second Duke of Northumberland. The 
late Mr. Smithson, of England, who bequeathed the generous donation of $500,000 to found our 
National " Smithsonian Institution," at Washington, was a natural son of that second Duke of 
Northumberland, and grandson to Sir Hugh Smithson, the first Duke, previously mentioned. In 
his inimitable poem, "Alnwick Castle," our American Halleck alludes to Earl Percy, as having 

" Fought for King George at Lexington, 
A major of dragoons." 



42 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

" Gabriel Thornton, in 1786, went to live with Chailes, as farm man- 
ager, having previously lived, since 1774, with Mr. Maynard, at 
Eryholme. Some remarks of Mr. Thornton concerning Mr. May- 
nard's cattle, led Mr. and Mrs. Colling* to ride over to Eryholme 
that same year. When they arrived, a handsome cow, called ' Favor- 
ite,' that Miss Maynard was milking, attracted their notice, and Mr. 
Colling offered to buy the cow and her heifer. After some haggling 
on both sides, the purchase was made, and the cows, 'Favorite,' 
and her daughter, 'Young Strawberry,' went to Ketton." 

As these two cows, "Favorite" (afterwards Lady Maynard, in 
Colling's hands), and her daughter, "Young Strawberry," mark the 
foundation of another distinguished family of Short-horns (aside 
from the Duchess already named), through the joint interbreeding of 
their own bull and heifer progenies, from which the bull " Favorite " 
(252) descended, and on which Colling's chief celebrity as an im- 
prover is based, a full history of the cows will be given. 

Lady Maynard and Young Strawberry. 

Mr. Maynard had long been a distinguished breeder of Short- 
horns at his farm of Eryholme, then occupied by him, and for many 
years since by his descendants, who have continuously bred until a 
recent day first-class cattle. At the time of Charles Colling's visit 
to him for the purchase of the two cows, Maynard was in possession 
of an excellent herd, and Colling finding the things he wanted, 
bought them of him at the low price of ,£40 ($200) for the cow 
and heifer.f 

The pedigree of the cow Lady Maynard is thus given under the 
name of "Favorite, or Lady Maynard," in the first edition of Vol. 1, 
Coates' E. FI. B. : 

" Red roan, bred by Mr. Maynard, got by Mr. Ralph Alcock's J 
bull (19), d. by Jacob Smith's § bull (608), gr. d. (Strawberry) by 
Mr. Jolly's bull (337)."! 

* It is said Mrs. Colling was quite as much interested in cattle breeding as her husband, and 
having no children she had abundant leisure to devote to the stock. 

t Mr. Bates' History. 

\ All the record pedigree of Alcock's bull is, "bred by Mr. Michael Jackson, of Hutton-Bon- 
ville, near North Allerton." A note of Mr. Bates' says : "A good bull." 

§ Smith's bull has no pedigree whatever. His name only is recorded. A note to his pedigree, 
in manuscript, written by Mr. Bates, says : " Yellow red, white face, white back, and white legs 
to the knees." 

|| Jolly's bull has no pedigree ; recorded. by name only. Mr. Bates said, "he was bred by Mr. 
Waistell, of Great Burdon." 

Mr. Bates afterwards wrote that Mr. Maynard gave him a long pedigree of the cow " Favor- 
ite," running back to the " Murrain" year, 1745. 



LADY MAYNARD. 
Lady Maynard's produce is thus recorded : 



43 



SEX AND COLOR. 



178-, cow calf, 
17S-, cow calf, red roan 
178-, cow calf, r. iV w., 
17S-, bull calf, r. & w., 

1796, bull calf, white, 



Young Strawberry, 
Miss Lax, 
Phoenix, 

Lady Maynard's bull (356I. 

Mason's white bull (421), -J 
and another cow calf which did not breed. 



Dalton Duke (188), 
Dalton Duke (.188), 
Foljambe (263), 
Lame bull (357), 
Bolingbroke (86), or 
Favorite (252), 



Mr. Maynard. 
Mr. Maynard. 
Charles Colling. 
Charles Colling. 
Charles Colling. 



Thus it appears that Young Strawberry, which Colling purchased 
with the cow, was her first calf, and she was bred by Maynard. As 
the pedigree of the cow Young Strawberry is already given under the 
produce of Lady Maynard, the pedigree of her (Young Strawberry's) 
son Bolingbroke (86) is found as her produce, under her record in 
Vol. i, E. H. B., as calved November 12, 1788, red and white, bred 
by Mr. Colling, and got by Foljambe (263). Foljambe is entered in 
the Herd Book as bred by Colling ; other authorities contend that he 
was bred by Mr. Hall, of Haughton-hill, got by Richard Barker's bull 
(52), out of the cow Haughton, by Hubback. Colling afterwards 
bought the cow Haughton of Mr. Hall. The pedigree of the cow 
Haughton runs thus : 

"Got by Hubback (319), dam by a bull of the late Charles Col- 
ling's (which he bought of Mr. John Bamlet), gr. d. by Mr. Waistell's 
bull (669), g. gr. d. Tripes, bred by Mr. C. Pickering." 

By other authority Tripes is said to be by Studley bull (626), and 
her dam bred by Mr. Stephenson, of Ketton, in 1739. 

So it will be seen that Foljambe was of stranger blood to the Lady 
Maynard family. Thus, with Foljambe, and his Lady Maynard, and 
other tribes, Colling went on with his new course of breeding ; but 
we do not find that Foljambe was directly used to any of the Colling- 
Duchess, or Stanwick family, as their pedigrees enter into the first 
volume of E. H. B. only in Mr. Bates' Duchess 1st, calved in 1810, 
got by Comet (155), and the fifth in descent from the Stanwick 
cow. Yet as Duchess 1st was descended through Comet and Favor- 
ite, who had the blood of Foljambe in them, the Duchess tribe had 
his blood also. 

With, the basis of the two tribes, Duchess, and Lady Maynard, in 
his hands, as well as with other cows which he had selected, Charles 
Colling began his remarkable in-and-in system of breeding, and 
pursued it with untiring pertinacity to the end of his Short-horn 
career in 1S10. He bred comparatively few animals of his Duchess 
tribe, although equally in-and-in bred as the Lady Maynards. Fol- 
jambe, as an early sire, begat the bull Bolingbroke (86), in the cow 



44 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

Young Strawberry, and also begat the cow Phoenix, in the dam of 
Young Strawberry (Lady Maynard), so that Bolingbroke was closely 
related to Phoenix in other ways than being her half brother. Then 
in Phoenix, his half sister and aunt, Bolingbroke begat Favorite (252), 
and Favorite in his own mother and sister (Phoenix) begat Young 
Phoenix, and in Young Phoenix (his own daughter as well as sister) 
he begat Comet (155), the famous 1000 guinea bull in the final sale of 
Colling's herd in 1810. In addition to this intensely close breeding, 
Favorite was used to his own heifers without stint in Colling's herd 
even to, in one instance (Robert Colling's Clarissa), the sixth genera- 
tion, producing in every case sound, healthy offspring. No bull in 
Short-horn history has so many animals which trace back to him as 
Favorite. Not only to his own immediate family relations, but to the 
Duchesses and other tribes does his blood extend, so that running 
back to Favorite, in thousands of bulls and cows, from that day to 
this, his blood has been commingled in near and remote relationship. 

Concurrent with Charles, his brother Robert had been equally vig- 
ilant. He had selected, probably, quite as good animals from the 
herds of Messrs. Milbank of Barningham, Hill of Blackwell, Best, 
Watson, Wright of Manfield, and Sir William St. Quintin of Scamp- 
ston, all of whom were celebrated breeders of Short-horn or Tees- 
water cattle.* 

Hubback had been used by Robert one year, and by Charles two 
years, as before stated, and sold by the latter at ten years of age, 
without a name, to go into the hands of Mr. Hubback, in Northum- 
berland, who gave his own name to the bull, and in whose possession 
he died. After leaving Colling, little is known of Hubback's produce 
or to Avhat classes of cows he was bred. The name of Mr. Hubback, 
the last owner of the bull, does not appear as a breeder in the early 
volumes of the Herd Book. 

Let it be borne in mind that while the Collings were thus vigor- 
ously busy in working up their herds, the older breeders around 
them had not been idle. The selections of the Collings were made 
from among the cattle of those breeders, and it may well be supposed 
that they still retained in their hands animals probably equal in 
quality to any with which they had parted ; but wanting the dash 
and enterprise of the later established Barmpton and Ketton breed- 
ers, they failed to bring their own herds into equally prominent 
notice. 



* Thornto" s Circular. 



FOLJAMBE. 45 

Succeeding Hubback, in Charles Colling's herd, we recall and 
notice Foljambe (263) [Hubback's grandson on the dam's side], by 
Richard Barker's bull (52), already mentioned. "Barker's bull was of 
good size and symmetry, but rather a hard handler, the winner of a 
premium, as a calf, in the year 1784, at Darlington, and generally 
known as ' Dicky Barker's black nose.'" Foljambe also had a dark 
nose, so said Mr. Bates. Foljambe's dam was Mr. Hall's cow Haugh- 
ton (by Hubback), before named, and "Colling considered that Fol- 
jambe left him the best stock which he had.* He is described as a 
useful, thick beast, handle good, wide back, dark face, and was sold 
by Mr. Coates to Mr. Foljambe, f as a yearling for 50 guineas "J ($260). 

Another description says that "he was a large, strong bull, a useful, 
big, bony beast, of great substance." 

Thus the brothers Colling progressed. The prices of the Tees- 
waters at that day were low. The country, outside the counties where 
they were bred, knew little either of the cattle or their value. Wais- 
tell and Robert Colling had bought Hubback for ten guineas (about 
$52), and Charles paid them only eight guineas ($42) for him ; and no 
wonder that they so bought him, when he had been serving cows 
indiscriminately at one shilling (or 22 cents) each! "Mrs. Charles 
Colling ridiculed her husband's niggardliness in giving Mr. Maynard 
only 30 guineas for the cow Favorite (Lady Maynard) and 10 guineas 
($52) for her heifer, Young Strawberry, although he bid 50 guineas 
($260) to Mr. Scott for 'Sockburn Sail,' the ancestress of the pres- 
ent Blanche tribe. The cows lay out in the fields, having a little hay 
taken out to them in bad weather, but always calved in a warm place. 
The calves had new milk till they were two or three weeks old, then 
for a month they got half and half (new and skim), afterwards skim 
milk with linseed bran, or other meal, or porridge ; they were then 
turned out to grass, getting nothing else. Nurse cows were kept for 
the bull calves, going out on hire." J 

The Collings are the first mentioned Short-horn breeders who let 
bulls out on hire. Mr. John Hutchinson, in a letter dated in 182 1, 
says : " Charles Colling, being an established breeder, exhibited in 
the spring of 1790, his first two yearling bulls for sale, and succeeded 



* That Colling so said, we have no doubt. But from all collateral testimony we have as little 
doubt that it wts the result of his chagrin at having so prematurely parted with Hubback, before 
he knew the intrinsic value of his blood and stock. — L. F. A. 

t There appears to be some discrepancy as to the different transfers and ownerships, as well as 
to which — Hall or Colling — really bred Foljambe. — L. F. A 

* Thornton's Circular. 



46 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

in selling them both. Mr. Coates, of Smeaton, was the purchaser of 
one for £26 ($130), and Mr. R. Thomas of the other, for ^23 
($115)." Mr. Bailey, the Durham historian, writes in 1810, that 
" Messrs. Colling and Mason let bulls out by the year at fifty ($260) 
to one hundred guineas ($520) each, and these celebrated breeders 
cannot supply the demand for the pure blood, which they are cautious 
of preserving, and which takers of bulls are become so well acquainted 
with that the prices they give are in proportion to the good qualities 
of the individuals, and merits of their progenitors, more regard being 
paid to their pedigree than to anything else. Messrs. Colling have fre- 
quently sold cows and heifers for ^100 ($500) each, and bull calves 
at the same. Charles Colling has refused ^500 ($2,500) for a cow, 
and in the year 1807, Mr. Mason refused ^700 ($3,500) for a cow."* 
" The most noted breeders who hired Charles Colling's bulls, were 
John Charge, of Newton, who used Favorite (252); Mr. Mason, of 
Chilton ; Mr. Jobling, of Styford ; Mr. Gibson, of Corbridge ; Sir 
George Strickland ; Mr. Robertson, of Ladykirk ; and Mr. Ostler, of 
Aylesby and Audley. Windsor (696) was used by Mr. Hustler in 
1808-9 \ Mr. Parker, of Malton, had him five years, and George III. 
had him for three years, at ^40 ($200) a year, for service on the 
royal farm at Windsor, whence he was named, "f 

The Mode of Charles Colling's Breeding. 

To keep a run of Charles Colling's system of breeding : after 
Hubback (319) he used Foljambe (263), who got Bolingbroke (S6), 
and Bolingbroke got Favorite (252), calved in 1793. He succes- 
sively used Favorite, with occasional interims, for thirteen years, 
beginning his services at two years old. At ten years old Favorite 
begat Comet (155), calved in 1804; and the next year, at eleven years 
old he begat North Star (458), full brother to Comet, calved in 1805. 
These two bulls, celebrated in their day, were out of Young Phoenix, 
his daughter and sister (she out of Phoenix, mother to Favorite, the 
sire of Young Phoenix), as close interbreeding, perhaps, as could be 
made. 



* Mr. Mason was contemporary with the Collings, a distinguished Short-horn breeder, and 
many animals of his herds were probably equal in excellence to those of the Collings, as he had 
early used the Colling bulls. His " Mason's white bull " (421), was got by either Bolingbroke or 
Favorite, out of Colling's Lady Maynard. Many descendants of his stock are found in the Herd 
Books.— L. F. A. 

t Thornton's Circular. 



colling's mode of breeding. 47 

That Colling bred his cattle with one persistent object in view 
there can be no question. It was to obtain the greatest concentration 
of good blood possible in his herd. His original cows he had selected 
from among the best at his command, and in order to cement that 
blood in its greatest strength, worked the blood of each into the 
descendants of others, as far as is possible, so that it should be com- 
mon to all. His original animals were not alike, differing much in 
their various qualities, yet all having more or less good and sterling 
points of character. Those different points will be more fully no- 
ticed hereafter. In Favorite (252), Colling judged that the best 
blood could be transmitted more successfully than through the veins 
of any other bull. Nor was he mistaken. He used him for two, 
three, four, and in one recorded instance five successive crosses in 
his own heifers, with decided success and no deterioration of consti- 
tution or quality in the very last cross he made in their production. 
At the final sale of his herd in 1810, there were more of his animals 
running back into the blood of Favorite than in all the other bulls 
he had used, put together. The follwing analysis is so well expressed 
that I quote it from the Rev. J. Storer, in Mr. Carr's late History of 
the Booth Short-horns : 

" Few people have any idea of the amazing extent to wnicn in- 
and-in breeding was carried on by the Brothers Colling; and so great 
was the complication it involved, that few of those who know the 
outline of the circumstances, can adequately realize all their intrica- 
cies. It is almost impossible to describe even proximately in some 
of its stronger features the system they pursued. But the attempt 
ought to be made; for the Messrs. Colling's system of in-and-in breed- 
ing, is not only one of the most remarkable and authentic cases in the 
history of the reproduction of animals with which we are acquainted, 
but the earlier Booth bulls were amongst those most strongly sub- 
jected to its influence. 

" Mr. C. Colling's bull Bolingbroke, and his cow Phoenix, were 
brother and sister on the sire's side, and nearly so on the dam's. 
They were of the same family ; and the only difference in descent 
was, that Bolingbroke was a grandson of Dalton Duke, while Phcenix 
was not. But this apparent difference, slight as it is, was not all real ; 
for Dalton Duke also contained some portion of their common blood. 
Arithmetically stated, the blood of the two being taken and divided 
into thirty-two parts, twenty-nine of those parts were of blood common 
to both, rather differently proportioned between them. Phcenix had 
sixteen of those parts, Bolingbroke thirteen ; the latter having also 



48 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

three fresh parts derived from Dalton Duke, which made up the 
thirty-two. 

" Being thus very nearly own brother and sister, they were the joint 
parents of the bull Favorite. That bull was next put to his own 
mother Phoenix, so nearly related to him on his sire's side also ; and 
the produce was Young Phoenix. To this heifer Favorite was once 
mor^ put, she being at once his daughter and more than own sister too. 
For their two sires, Bolingbroke and Favorite, were not only as nearly 
as possible consanguineous with each other, but also with the cow 
Phoenix, to which they were both put. The result was — Comet (155). 

" Nor was this all. The system was carried much further. The 
celebrated Booth bull Albion (14) was not only a son of the in-and- 
in Favorite bred Comet, but his dam was a granddaughter of Favorite 
on both sides, and descended besides from both the sire and the dam 
of Favorite. 

" It is not so possible to make an exact statement with regard to 
Pilot (496), for it is not known whether he was by Major (398), or 
Wellington (680). Nor does it much matter; for five-eighths of 
Major's and three-quarters of Wellington's blood were derived from 
Favorite, by repeated inter crossings ; and Pilot's dam was not only 
by Favorite, but she was also the granddaughter of Foljambe, the sire 
of both the parents of Favorite. 

"Marshal Beresford (415) was, like Albion, a son of Comet (155); 
and his dam was by a grandson of Favorite, out of a daughter of 
Favorite. 

" Suworrow (636) was by a son of Favorite ; and his dam was a 
daughter of Favorite ; and Twin Brother to Ben (660) was from a 
cow by Foljambe, the double grandsire of Favorite. 

" Even this does not exhaust the subject. Many of the above 
mentioned animals were otherwise related to each other by a common 
descent from Hubback, and from other progenitors. 

"Albion has been called 'The Alloy Bull.' I think with very little 
reason. When it is remembered that he is the seventh in descent 
from that blood, and that therefore only one part of his blood came 
from 'The Alloy,'* against one hundred and twenty-seve?i parts which 
were not derived from it, the chances against either good or evil 
resulting therefrom were infinitesimally small ; and so no doubt such 
an acute observer as Mr. Booth well knew." 



* Through Washington (674). These bulls will be more particularly noticed hereafter in our 
remarks upon the Booth herds. — L. F. A. 



COLLIN G'S MODE OF BREEDING. 



49 



To further illustrate Colling's in-and-in breeding, we give two dia- 
grams of descent first published in Vol. i, American Herd Book: 




EXPLANATION OF FIGURES. 



Bull, Hubback. 


5. Bull, Foljambe. 11. 


Dam of Haughton. 


6. Cow, Young Strawberry. 12. 


Richard Barker's bull. 


7. Bull Dalton Duke. 13. 


Cow, Haughton. 


8 and 10. Cow, Lady Maynard. 14. 




9. Bull, Bolingbroke. 



Cow, Phcenix. 
Cow, Young Phcenix. 
Bull, Favorite. 
Bull, Comet. 



While on this subject we give a diagram of another animal, the cow 
Clarissa, which we find on record, bred by Robert Colling, to show 
the depth of a particular strain of blood which he acquired. This 
cow, it appears, has six consecutive crosses or 63-64ths parts of the 
blood of Favorite. Her pedigree (Vol. i, E. H. B.) runs thus: 
"Clarissa, roan, calved in 1814, bred by Mr. R. Colling, got by Wel- 
lington (6S0), out of , by Favorite (252), — by Favorite, — by 

Favorite, — by Favorite, — by Favorite, — by Favorite, — by a son of 
Hubback." (See diagram on next page.) 

In addition to the pedigree of Clarissa, we have run out that of 
Wellington, her sire, which also goes back to Favorite, showing that 
although Clarissa's dam had six crosses of Favorite's blood, Clarissa 
is met on the other side by a bull deeply impregnated with the blood 
of Favorite also. Clarissa proved a good breeder, and was the dam 
of several excellent animals. 

After saying so much of the Collings, it may be asked, why they 
so rapidly achieved a reputation as Short-horn breeders, so young in 

4 



50 



HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 



the business, and outstripped their older neighbors to whom they 
were indebted for the original excellence in their herds, and had 
adopted a course of breeding opposed to the common opinions of 
the breeders around them, viz. : the in-and-in system of Bakewell. 




EXPLANATION OF FIGURES. 



Bull, Hubbaclc. 

Son of Hubback. 

Cow, by son of Hubback. 

Bull, Favorite. 

ist Cow by Favorite. 

2d Cow by Favorite. 

3d Cow by Favorite. 



4th Cow by Favorite. 
5th Cow by Favorite. 
6th Cow by Favorite. 
Cow, Clarissa. 
Bull, Wellington, sire of 

Clarissa. 
Bull, Comet. 
Cow, Wildair. 



15. Cow, Young Phoenix. 

16. Cow, Phoenix. 

4. Same bull Favorite on the 
side of Clarissa's sire, as 
on the sire of her dam. 

17. Bull, Bolingbroke. 

18. Granddaughter of Hubback. 



They bred their stock intensely and pertinaciously in-and-in, as 
has been seen by the crosses and diagrams we have given, to the 
closest relationship. They had selected from the herds of other 
breeders not only as good blood as they could obtain, but as good 
animals, and by their course of close breeding had concentrated 
that blood into its utmost compactness in their stock, thus enabling 
their bulls to transmit it with nearly absolute certainty into the thor- 
oughbred animals of their get. Of course their herds had acquired 
a character and type of their own, measurably distinct from those of 
other breeders, who, in following the old idea that near relations 
should not be crossed in stock breeding, possessed herds of miscella- 
neous character, although, perhaps, in many points of excellence 
quite equal to the Collings. We do not aver that the Collings' 
stock was better than that of some of the other careful, painstaking 



DURHAM OX. 51 

breeders around them, other than in their fixed and undeviating 
characteristics, and their thus acquired power of transmitting those 
characteristics into their progeny, when put upon cows of blood not 
related to them. This the deeply in-and-in bred Colling bulls did, 
beyond a question, and hence their rapidly acquired popularity. 

Still, the Short-horns were a local breed of cattle, confined chiefly 
to the counties of ancient Northumbria, and the best of them were 
to be found in and about the valley of the Tees. The Collings, in 
the exercise of their usual foresight and sagacity, determined to give 
their cattle a wide reputation through the kingdom, and for that pur- 
pose Charles prepared the 

Durham Ox 

for public exhibition. As this ox achieved a wide reputation and 
successfully drew the merits of the Short-horns to the attention of 
the cattle breeding public, although it has been frequently published, 
a full account of him will be repeated. He was among the earliest 
calves got by Favorite (252), "bred in the year 1796, and out of a 
common black and white cow, bought for Charles Colling by John 
Simpson, at Durham Fair, for ^14 ($70)."* Although the dam of 
the Durham Ox was said to have been " a common cow," from the price 
which Colling paid for her, and the marvellous excellence and beauty 
of the ox descended from her, it is altogether probable she possessed 
much of the "common " Short-horn blood of the vicinity. f Yet, from 
the " black " in her she may not have been highly bred, but of remark- 
ably good quality. This calf, made a steer, Colling fed up to his 
greatest flesh-taking capacity until nearly five years old, when he had 
attained a weight of 3024 pounds. He was then purchased to be 
exhibited, by Mr. Buhner of Harmby, in February, 1S01, for ^140 
(3700). Buhner had a traveling carriage made to carry him through 
the country, and after traveling and exhibiting him five weeks, sold 
the carriage and ox at Rotherham to John Day, for ,£250 ($1,250). 
On the 14th of May ensuing, Mr. Day could have sold him for ,£525 
($2,625) ; on the 13th of June, for ^1,000 ($5,000), and on the 8th of 
July, for ^2,000 ($10,000), but he refused all these offers, which were 
strong proofs of the excellence of the ox, as well as his exhibiting 

* Thornton's Circular. 

+ The ox, like his sire, Favorite, was light roan in color. Did not that color, like the wonder- 
ful excellence he otherwise possessed, demonstrate the certai?ity with which the highly concen- 
trated blood of Favorite was capable of being thrown into his produce? 



52 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

value. Mr. Day traveled with him nearly six years, through the 
principal parts of England and Scotland, till at Oxford, on the 19th 
of February, the ox dislocated his hip bone, and continued in that 
state till the 15 th of April, when he was killed, and notwithstanding 
he must have lost considerable flesh during these eight weeks of 
illness, yet his dead weight was : 

Four quarters, 2322 pounds. 

Tallow, 156 " 

Hide, 142 

2620 pounds. 

This was at the age of eleven years, under all the disadvantages of 
six years traveling in a jolting carriage, and eight weeks of painful 
lameness. At ten years old Mr. Day stated his live weight to have 
been nearly 3400 pounds. 

About the year 1806, Robert Colling reared a thoroughbred heifer, 
afterwards called the "White Heifer that Traveled," which he sent 
out through the principal agricultural counties for exhibition ; the 
date of her birth is not given in the first volume E. H. B., where 
her pedigree is recorded. She was also got by Favorite (252), her 
dam called "Favorite Cow," also bred by R. Colling; the name of 
" Favorite Cow's " sire is not given. Her gr. dam, " Yellow Cow," 
was by Punch (531), and her g. gr. dam was by Anthony Reed's bull 
(538), and bred by Mr. Best, of Manfield. The "White Heifer" 
being twinned with a bull, and herself not breeding, she was no 
doubt fed up to her greatest flesh-taking capacity during her life. 
Her age, when slaughtered, is not given, but the account states that 
her live weight could not have been less than 2300 pounds, and her 
dead (profitable) weight was estimated at 1820 pounds. 

There were other extraordinary large and heavy cattle bred and 
fed by the Short-horn breeders contemporary with the Collings, 
whose recorded weights we might give, but as they all run in about 
the same scale, it is not important to record them here. It is suffi- 
cient to say that the great reputation which the Collings and their 
animals acquired was through the wider knowledge which the public 
abroad obtained of them by these public exhibitions. Thus the 
Collings became conspicuously known, and were considered by those 
not intimately acquainted with the other breeders around them, as, 
if not the founders, at least the great improvers of that newly adver- 
tised and meritorious race. 



ROBERT COLLING'S BREEDING. 53 



Robert Colling and his Short-horn Breeding. 

Although he has been frequently mentioned in the account of his 
brother Charles, as they often bred their stock through an interchange 
of bulls, yet Robert had a herd in blood distinctly his own, and bred 
many cattle as highly distinguished in their merits as were those 
of Charles. 

Previous to his taking the farm at Barmpton in the year 1783, he 
lived at Hurworth, a short distance away. When a youth he had 
been apprenticed to a grocer, but his health declining, he embraced 
fanning. He had often visited Mr. Culley, a noted farmer, stock 
breeder, and agricultural writer, and took lessons from him in farm- 
ing, turnip growing, and stock feeding. He had obtained Leicester 
sheep from Bakewell, and for many years bred and sold them with 
great success, simultaneous with his pursuit of Short-horn cattle 
breeding. His annual ram-lettings were extensive and profitable. 

Some of his earliest stock he obtained from Mr. Milbank, of 
Barningham. They were considered as among the best of the Tees- 
water cattle, and noted for their excellent grazing properties. He 
also selected the best cows to be obtained from other breeders, and 
having the bull Hubback (319), as previously stated, in the year 1783, 
by which he had seventeen cows served, it may well be supposed 
that he made a ready and sure start through the best blood and the 
best animals he could obtain in the foundation of his herd. He 
bred with skill and judgment, and founded several different families, 
or tribes of females, as the Wildair, the Red Rose, the Princess, 
the Bright Eyes, and others, which became in future hands, as well 
as his own, widely noted as the bases of superior herds. He also 
bred many noted bulls. Among the earliest of them were "Broken- 
horn " (95), by Hubback (319), etc. ; "Punch" (513) by Broken-horn ; 
Ben (70), and "Twin Brother to Ben" (660), by Punch; "Colling's 
(Robert) white bull" (151), by Favorite (252); "Marske" (418), 
by Favorite [his dam and grand dam also by Favorite ; great grand 
dam by Hubback (319), — by Snowdon's bull (612), — by Master- 
man's bull (422), — by Harrison's bull (292), — by Studley bull (626); 
Marske was a noted bull, useful thirteen years, and died at fifteen 
years old] ; " North Star" (459), by Favorite [and full brother to the 
"White Heifer that Traveled"] ; "Phenomenon" (491), by Favorite; 
"Styford" (629), by Favorite; besides many later bulls which were 
sold, or occasionally used by him, or let for service to other breeders. 



54 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

Among the cows bred by Robert Colling was one which has ob- 
tained celebrity through her descendants as "The American Cow ;" 
and it has been a subject of inquiry during late years, both in Eng- 
land and America, why a cow so ancient in lineage should have been 
called by a name so foreign to her birth-place, and after a country 
where the Short-horns at that time were almost unknown. We first 
find her name in the pedigree of Red Rose, in first edition of Vol. i, 
p. 457, E. H. B., as follows: "Red, calved in 1811, bred by Mr. 
Hustler, property of Mr. T. Bates, got by Yarborough (705), dam 
(bred by R. Colling, and called The American Cow), by Favorite 
(252), gr. d. by Punch (531), g. gr. d. by Foljambe (263), g. g. gr. d. 
by Hubback (319)." 

In the above pedigree The American Cow is originally identified. 
In Vol. 2, p. 497, first edition E. H. B., the same Red Rose is again 
recorded as Red Rose 1st, her dam being " The American Cow," 
as before. In a conversation with Mr. John Thornton, of London, 
when in this country in the winter of 1870-71, (who is as well versed 
in English Short-horn pedigrees, perhaps, as any other,) he remarked 
that he had never learned why the American Cow was so called, 
although he had made diligent inquiries in England for the reason. 

The American history of the cow, as we have been informed on 
authority which we deem good, is this : In some year, not long after 
1 80 1, a son of Mr. Hustler, who was a Short-horn cattle breeder in 
Yorkshire, emigrated to New York, and brought with him some Short- 
horn cattle, among which was this nameless cow, or then heifer, 
afterwards dam of the Red Rose 1st, which his father bought of 
Robert Colling. The younger Hustler went into business in New 
York City, and put his cattle into the adjoining county of Westchester, 
After a few years stay in America, he returned to England, and not 
finding his Short-horns appreciated on this side the ocean, (as 
we find no record of them or their produce in this country,) Mr. 
Hustler took this cow back with him, as she was a remarkably good 
beast, and put her into his father's herd. Then, on being put to 
Yarborough, she became the dam of Red Rose, afterwards purchased 
by Mr. Bates, he calling her Red Rose 1st, which, in his hands, was 
the original of the tribe of Red Rose, from whom many excellent 
animals have descended. The only English account we have of 
The American Cow, aside from her pedigree, which we have quoted, 
is, that "she was sent to America, and taken back to England." 

It is hardly necessary to follow Robert Colling through the various 
particulars of his breeding, as we have done more closely with 



ROBERT COLLING'S BREEDING. 55 

Charles, for, as has been previously remarked, they bred much in 
concert, followed the same system of intercrossing their blood, and 
in fact were almost identical in their practice. To sum up the results 
of their joint action, it may be said that they, in the midst of older 
and more experienced breeders, combatted the ancient prejudices of 
the day, and through their in-and-in system, established a new school 
in breeding. 



$6 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 



CHAPTER III. 

Were the Collings the Earliest and Chief Improvers of 
the Short-horns? 

In the discussion of this question a wider range of observation 
may be necessary than has usually been taken from hearsay, tradi- 
tion, or even what in some cases has been written by men claiming a 
personal knowledge of the subject. Assertion is one thing; proof is 
another thing ; and sometimes widely different, in the settlement of 
facts. It has long been so commonly reported among those who 
have never gone into an investigation of the matter, that to the 
Collings — especially Charles — was due the great merit of transform- 
ing the ancient, coarse, ungainly race of Short-horns, which had long 
existed anterior to their coming upon the stage, into the stately and 
more highly perfected condition in which they left them, that it may 
seem, if not an act of audacity, at least a bootless task to combat a 
belief which has heretofore been so commonly entertained. We 
shall, however, carefully examine all the facts at command and strive 
to place the subject in as true a light as possible. 

To the first question: "Were the Collings the earliest improv- 
ers " of the Short-horn race ? our previous narrative has clearly 
shown they were not. At the outset of their career as breeders they 
found the Short-horns, or Teeswaters, a valuable, profitable, and 
highly approved, as well as established breed, in three or four differ- 
ent counties of England, where, time immemorial, they had lived and 
flourished ; and in whatever state of improvement over that of their 
ancient progenitors they then existed, their improvement was not 
made by the Collings. Therefore their claims to the early improve- 
ment may be dismissed without further discussion. 

The next question : "Were they the chief improvers " of the Short- 
horns of their own day ? If improved at all during their career is 
now the question to be examined. We have seen that when the 
Collings commenced business various breeders in their vicinity had 
excellent cattle. All, or nearly all, the bulls anterior to their time 



THE COLLINGS AS IMPROVERS. 57 

which the English Herd Book has recorded have been mentioned, 
and many of the chief points and excellencies, as well as defects of 
their animals, have been noticed, and every bull and every cow to 
which the Collings traced their best or choicest blood in animals of 
their own breeding were bred by others, and not by themselves. 
That it was a master stroke of sagacity, as well as policy, in their 
collecting some of the best cattle to be found on which to base their 
herds will be conceded ; for having the tools in their hands the value 
of their workmanship in the use of them could best be judged. 

Let us follow (although it may be repeating a portion of what we 
have already stated) the course of the Collings somewhat in detail, 
for it is only in details that accurate results can be gathered. In the 
year 1784 Charles bought the Stanwick, or original Duchess cow, 
from the estate of the Duke of Northumberland in Yorkshire. The 
cow Haughton (by Hubback) he soon afterwards bought from Mr. 
Hall; and in 1786 or '87, he bought "Favorite, or Lady Maynard," 
and her daughter, "Young Strawberry," from Mr. Maynard. Here 
were four prime cows to start with, and from which most of his 
animals on which his chief reputation was acquired descended. In 
1784 he bought the bull Hubback from his brother Robert and Mr. 
Waistell, neither of whom bred him. In the pages of Vol. 1, E. H. 
B., are found some animals bred by Colling having a double cross of 
Hubback ; but as he did not keep the bull more than two years, not 
giving time enough to put him to his own daughters, except as the 
latter were yearlings, it is not probable that he had that double cross 
in his own breeding. Aside from this we have the authority of the 
late Thomas Bates, who was familiar with Colling's whole course of 
breeding, that he made no such second cross in any heifer bred by 
himself. Of course, if he had cows with a double cross of Hubback 
in their blood he must have obtained them from other parties, of 
which we may suppose there may have been several in the neighbor- 
hood, as the bull had been freely used in getting calves, as before 
stated, at a shilling each. Thus he had an early infusion of Hubback 
blood. Next to Hubback he used Foljambe,* out of the cow Haugh- 
ton, and she by Hubback, thus combining the Hubback blood through 
Foljambe more closely in his herd. Colling bred a heifer, by Hub- 
back, out of the Duchess (Stanwick) cow, but we have no record of 
a female by Hubback out of either Lady Maynard or her daughter, 
Young Strawberry ; but out of Lady Maynard he bred the cow 

* Got by Barker's (Richard) bull (52), " Dickey Barker's black nose," previously mentioned. 



58 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

Phoenix, by Foljambe, and out of Young Strawberry (daughter to 
Lady Maynard, and half sister to Phoenix) he bred the bull Boling- 
broke (88), also by Foljambe. Then Bolingbroke was bred to his 
more than half sister, and aunt, Phoenix, producing Favorite (252), 
and then this Favorite put to Phoenix (his own mother, and more 
closely related, if possible), produced the cow Young Phoenix, and 
she in turn being bred to Favorite, her own sire (brother and all 
other sorts of close relationship), produced Comet (155), a bull 
individually more admired than any other one of his day. 

This system of interbreeding Charles Colling pursued, or as closely 
to it as possible, with all the best families in his herd. He had 
selected his original animals with an eye to particular models of 
excellence. He could not find a finished model in any one animal 
of his original selections. They had various points of excellence, as 
well as some defects, and his object was to get rid of their defects 
and combine their excellencies into the younger stock so as to create 
a uniformity of character as near his own standard of perfection as 
possible. He had in the bull Favorite, got as much of the blood of 
his cow Lady Maynard, and through Foljambe of Hubback's, as 
was probably possible to obtain, and he bred from Favorite, more 
or less for thirteen years, as long as he was useful. 

Let it be borne in mind that Colling actedon the axiom that blood, 
in order to be most useful in perpetuating its good qualities in breed- 
ing, must be concentrated as closely as possible in the veins of the 
breeding animals, as only through such concentration of blood could 
its individual properties and character be transmitted with absolute 
certainty to their progeny. Thus the choicest of the Colling cattle 
had a uniformity of type which so far, provided their qualities were 
good, was a decided improvement in them, beyond those animals 
which had been miscellaneously bred from different bulls having no 
blood relations with each other, or with the cows to which they were 
bred, thus striking out into various incongruities of character, and 
transmitting their own qualities, even if of the best kind, with no 
certainty to their offspring. Robert bred under the same system as 
did Charles ; but it is unnecessary to follow his herd with the same 
particularity of detail, as several of his best have already been 
noticed. Many pages of Vol. 1, E. H. B., would have to be quoted 
to illustrate their breeding. 

As both the Collings were considerable breeders, it is not to be 
supposed that all their cattle were so closely interbred. They fre- 
quently bought good cows from other breeders, even after their own 



THE COLLINGS EARLY CATTLE. 59 

choice tribes were established ; these cows they bred to their best 
bulls, and sold their produce to different breeders, so that the Herd 
Book, not originating until 1S22, some years after they had both 
given up cattle breeding, does not represent all the animals of their 
herds. Their stock, outside of the choicest families, were not uni- 
form in either their several qualities, or individual merits. But 
having prime animals of their best families, those gave them their 
reputation as leading breeders, or improvers of the Short-horn race. 

Comparing the various characteristics of the most noted cattle in 
the Colling herds let us see what was said of them by their con- 
temporaries : 

Lady Maynard, red roan, is described as a beautiful cow, and her 
daughter, Young Strawberry, color not given, as having much of 
her character. 

Hubback was yellow red* with little white, a smooth, small bull, 
and the quality of his flesh, hide and hair, seldom equaled ; head 
good ; horns small and fine ; breast forward ; handling firm ; shoulders 
rather upright ; girth good ; loins, body and sides fair ; rumps and hips 
extraordinary; flank and twist wonderful. His dam a beautiful little 
cow, and became so fat by running in the lanes of Darlington that 
she would not afterwards breed and was slaughtered. She — the dam 
of Hubback — was got by Banks' bull, of Hurworth (not in the Herd 
Books), and he, Banks' bull, had a great belly. The grand dam of 
Hubback, on the dam's side, was bred by Mr. Stephenson, of Ketton. 
Snowdon's bull (626), sire of Hubback, was out of a daughter of a 
cow bought from the same Mr. Stephenson. 

The cow Haughton (dam of Foljambe), yellow red and white (got 
by Hubback), her dam by John Bamlet's bull (not in Herd Book), 
gr. d. by Waistell's bull (669), g. gr. d. Tripes, bred by C. Pickering. 
We find no description of her. Charles Colling afterwards bought 
Bamlet's bull, from which fact we presume he was possessed of excel- 
lent qualities. 

Foljambe, "white, with a few red spots, and a. dark nose; handle 
good ; wide back ; dark face ; a large, strong bull ; a useful, big, bony, 
thick beast of great substance." 

Duchess (the Stanwick cow), " Charles Colling bought 14th June, 
1784, for ^13 ($65), a massive, short-legged cow; breast near the 
ground ; a great grower, with wide back, and of a beautiful yellowish 
flaked red color."* Colling himself said that " she was better than 

* Mr. Bates, in Bell's History. 



60 HISTORY OF T H E SHORT-HORNS. 

any he ever produced from her, though put to his best bulls, which 
improved all other cattle." She was bred to Hubback. The pro- 
duce was a heifer, and from her the present tribe of (Bates') 
Duchesses, on the female side, are descended. 

Cherry, a fine cow, bought at Yarm Fair, by his father, also came 
into Charles Colling's possession, and from her he bred his " Cherry " 
tribe. We have no description of her. 

It was conceded by a company of old breeders in 1812, in discuss- 
ing the question of the improvement of Short-horns, that no stock 
of Mr. Colling's breeding ever equaled Lady Maynard,* the dam of 
Phoenix, and grand dam of Favorite (252). Robert Colling told Mr. 
Wiley that his brother's and his own cattle were never better than 
anybody else's until his brother Charles got Maynard's two cows. 

From the above descriptions and opinions of breeders at the time, 
it will be seen that there was little uniformity in the character of 
the Collings' original stock, and if they afterwards acquired a uni- 
form excellence in their several herds — which, no doubt, to a con- 
siderable extent they did — it was by persistence in their course of 
in-and-in breeding, which has been described. 

So much has been said of the bull Favorite (252), into whose blood 
more good Short-horns of the present time trace a portion of their 
lineage than any other bull of his day, that we give his description. 
His color was light roan. " Mr. Coates thought him a large beast, 
with a fine, bold eye, body down, low back, and other parts very 
good. Mr. Waistell said Favorite was a grand beast, very large and 
open, had a fine brisket, with a good coat, and as good a handler as 
ever was felt." 

" His (Favorite's) dam Phoenix was a large, open-boned cow, and 
coarser than her dam — ' the beautiful Lady Maynard ' — partaking 
more of her sire's (Foljambe) character. Favorite, the son, partook 
more of his dam's (Phoenix) character, and possessed remarkably 
good loins, long and level hind quarters ; his shoulder points stood 
wide, and were somewhat too coarse, and too forward in the neck, 
and his horns, in comparison with Hubback's, were long and strong. 
His sire, Bolingbroke (86), was by Foljambe, out of Young Straw- 
berry (daughter of Lady Maynard). In color he was red, with a 
little white, and the best bull George Coates ever saw. Favorite 

* The judgments of men are sometimes fallible. We think there must be some error in this 
statement, for it is evident that the stock produced from her would not have held so high a 
reputation had they not exhibited some particular qualities above those which their ancestry 
possessed. — L. F. A. 



THE GALLOWAY CROSS. 6 1 

(252), born in 1793, died in 1809, was used indiscriminately upon his 
own offspring, even in the third generation." Yes, even to the fifth 
and sixth generations in some one or two prominent instances. 

As Phoenix, the dam of Favorite, has been partially described in 
connection with her son, her measurement is here given : 

Height 4 feet 8 inches. Length of quarter, . 1 foot 9 inches. 

Width of hip 2 " 2K " Length of back,. . . 5 " \K " 

Width of loin, . ... I " 7X " Girth at chime,. .. . 7 " 1 " 

Girth of shank "jM " Girth at neck, 3 " 2% " 

The Galloway Cross — Rev. Henry Berry's Youatt History. 

We now arrive at an episode in Short-shorn annals — no less than 
the introduction of the notorious "Alloy" admixture, through the 
blood of a Scotch Galloway cow, into the herd of Charles Colling. 
As this incident in its partial detail at the hands of Mr. Berry has 
given rise to an altogether erroneous idea of the origin of the "im- 
proved" Short-horns, and created a belief, or supposition, that the 
present type of Short-horn excellence is of recent date, or about the 
year 1800, through an admixture of "Galloway" blood with the 
ancient race, a full history of the matter will be given. 

In the first volume E. H. B., Rev. Henry Berry, of Acton Rectory, 
Worcestershire, Eng., is recorded as in the years 182 1 and '22, the 
breeder of two animals, the bull Pirate (500), and a heifer, called 
Rebecca. The dam of the bull was bred by Mr. Hustler, and traces 
back into the stock of Robert Colling ; the dam of the heifer was 
bred by Mr. W r right, of Cleasby. To these he afterwards added other 
animals, and became, to a moderate extent, a Short-horn breeder. 
In addition to his clerical and cattle breeding duties he appears to 
have been somewhat addicted to controversy, and engaged in dis- 
cussing the relative merits between the Short-horn and Hereford 
breeds of cattle as feeding or flesh producing animals, in which he 
advocated the Short-horns. To substantiate their claims he wrote a 
pamphlet entitled 

"Improved Short-horns, and Their Pretentions Stated, 
being an Account of this Celebrated Breed of Cattle, 
Derived from Authentic Sources." The first edition was issued 
in the year 1824. 

From the rather ambitious title of his pamphlet one would suppose 
that an elaborate history would be given. Instead of any such, 
he gave less than eleven pages in large, open type, slightly alluding 



62 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

to the Short-horns and their characteristics, as an ancient race, with 
the names of a few noted early bulls owned and used by Charles 
Colling; about eighteen pages, enumerating - the weights of various 
bullocks, cows and heifers, fed for slaughter ; a list of eleven extra- 
ordinary milk cows owned by Jonas Whitaker, of Otley, in Yorkshire 
(the cows derived mainly from the stocks of Robert and Charles 
Colling), and closing with extracts from the lists of the great herd 
sales of the two Collings in 1810 and 1818. These, with three 
or four additional pages of miscellaneous matter, fill the history. 
The remainder of the pamphlet is devoted to the Hereford contro- 
versy, which is now of little consequence. 

This pamphlet was reprinted in 1830, being a copy of the other, 
with no particular alteration beyond an additional preface. We 
might quote at large from Berry's pamphlet, but as his historical 
matter is nothing more than a condensation of previous history which 
we have already related in much more extended remark, it is unnec- 
essary here to repeat it. The weights of cattle, also, which he gives, 
although proving their great size, ripe points, good feeding qualities 
and early maturity, are not extraordinary, compared with those of 
a later period. The main drift of his account aims to establish 
Charles Colling as the master-spirit of his day in "improving" the 
Short-horn race of cattle, and to publish the fact of such improve- 
ment to the world, and also distinguish Mr. Whitaker, from whose 
herd he (Berry) had become a considerable purchaser, as Colling's 
principal successor in Short-horn breeding and excellence. 

In 1834, ten years after Berry's first pamphlet (in 1824), an elab- 
orate work entitled "Cattle, their Breeds, Management and 
Diseases," purporting to give a history of the various races and 
breeds of neat cattle belonging to the British Islands, was published 
in London. This was edited under the superintendence of "The 
Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge," of which the late 
Lord Brougham was the head. The work was compiled by William 
Youatt, a veterinary surgeon, of Middlesex Hospital, London, a man 
of ability, and in his profession, of extended repute. The historical 
matter of his book was drawn from various sources through indi- 
vidual correspondents in different parts of the kingdom. In addition 
to that were added several hundred pages on "Management and 
Diseases," rendering it a work, with some exceptions, of standard 
English authority on the subjects of which it treated — particularly 
those parts which Youatt had closely studied, and with which he was 
personally familiar. 



THE GALLOWAY CROSS. 63 

In the " Short-horn " history of his book Youatt, himself, seems to 
have taken but little part. He jobbed that portion of it out to 
Mr. Berry, who, in its compilation made it quite a different narrative 
from that which his previous pamphlet contained. Much that was 
in his pamphlet history is omitted, and much that was ?iot in the 
pamphlet is added in the Youatt history. In the latter Charles 
Colling still holds the chief place as a breeder and improver — a few 
other names are slightly mentioned ; but Whitaker, with whom it is 
said he had had a difference since the pamphlet was published, is not 
mentioned at all. Berry at that time was also possessed of some of 
the "Alloy " blood, or Galloway cross, originally introduced by Charles 
Colling, of which he makes prominent mention, and that cross he 
asserted was the grand feature of "improvement" in the Short-horn 
race which he now claimed that Colling had established. 

As this pretended improvement to which so much importance is 
ascribed by Berry, was the sheerest fallacy, we shall lay it before the 
reader. In the year 1791, after Charles Colling had been ten' years a 
Short-horn breeder, and got his choicest Short-horn families well 
established, one of his neighbors, Colonel O'Callaghan, purchased 
two Scotch Galloway, hornless heifers, and brought to his farm. 
He agreed with Colling to have the heifers served to his bull 
Bolingbroke (86), with the understanding that if the calves were 
bulls, Colling was to have them; if heifers, O'Callaghan was to retain 
them. One of these heifers, red in color, dropped a red and white 
roan bull calf, in the year 1792, which immediately became the prop- 
erty of Colling. The other calf was a heifer, which was kept by 
O'Callaghan. Colling had an aged Short-horn cow, "Old Johanna," 
bred by himself, of moderate quality, got by "Lame bull" (358), bred 
by Robert Colling. That is all which is given of her pedigree, no 
dam being mentioned. Yet Lame bull had two crosses of Hubback 
(319) in him, and his great grand dam was by James Brown's red 
bull (97), so far giving him an excellent pedigree. Old Johanna not 
having bred a calf for two years, was put to this Son of Bolingbroke 
(from the Galloway heifer), when a yearling, and he got her in calf. 
The produce was another bull calf, in 1794, Grandson of Bolingbroke 
(280), red and white in color, which Colling also kept, being three- 
fourths Short-horn and one-fourth Galloway blood. Colling's cow 
Phoenix, the dam of Favorite (252), had become somewhat aged, and 
not having had a calf since the birth of Favorite in 1793 or '94 (for 
both those dates are given with his pedigree in the English Herd 
Book ; but Mr. Bates states it was in October, 1793, that he was born), 



64 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

although put to good bulls and not breeding, as a last resort she was 
coupled to this Grandson of Bolingbroke, when a yearling, in 1795, 
and by him she had a red and white heifer calf in the year 1796. 
This calf Colling called "Lady." She had one-eighth part Galloway 
blood. Proving a very good one, Colling reared this heifer, and at 
maturity bred her successively to his bulls Favorite (252), her half 
brother; Cupid (177), otherwise closely related to her; and to Comet 
(155), still more closely related. She produced the heifers Countess, 
one-sixteenth Galloway, by Cupid ; and Laura, also one-sixteenth 
Galloway, by Favorite, both of which proved fine cows. Her bull 
calves were Washington (674), one-sixteenth Galloway, by Favorite; 
also Major (397), one-sixteenth; George (276), one-sixteenth; and 
Sir Charles (592), one-sixteenth Galloway, the three last ones by 
Comet (155). 

The two " Alloy " bulls, "O'Callaghan's Son of Bolingbroke " (469), 
and "Grandson of Bolingbroke " (280), as well as the cows Lady, and 
her daughters Countess and Laura, and some of their descendants, 
many years after Colling had sold them, were recorded in Vol. 1, E. 
H. B., with their Galloway crosses distinctly given. 

Such, through a single cross only in a Galloway cow, is the origin 
of Berry's celebrated "Alloy" improvement, on the female side of 
which the cow "Lady," only one-eighth of that blood (never breed- 
ing back, either by herself or her descendants, to the Galloway again, 
but on Short-horn blood continuously thereafter), was the sole 
founder. 

In review of this whole matter which Mr. Berry has worked up, 
through the Galloway cross in the cow Lady and her progeny, as a 
deliberate plan for improvement by Colling on the blood and quality 
of the Short-horns, we think it simply an accident. "Old Johanna" 
had apparently ceased breeding — not having dropped a calf for two 
years ; and Son of Bolingbroke, in the failure of Colling's better bulls 
to effect it, was used to restore her to fertility. It was under like 
circumstances with the cow Phcenix. Although she had brought 
several calves, and then ceased to breed from his best bulls, Colling 
required further use of her, and as a last resort, put her to the 
Grandson of Bolingbroke. This connection producing a calf (Lady), 
he then put her to her own son, Favorite, and Young Phcenix, the 
future dam of Comet (155), was the produce. If Colling really 
intended the improvement, why did he not, after she had produced 
Lady, again put her to the bastard to continue his improvement ? 



THE GALLOWAY CROSS. 65 

We think he would surely have done so, if he had any faith in such 
a process. 

Again : as to the real " improvement " claimed by Mr. Berry in 
the best of the Colling blood. The year 1796 was the earliest date 
in which Grandson of Bolingbroke had any produce (that being the 
year in which Lady was born), and none of his blood could have 
gone into any stock previous to that time, as the " Grandson " was 
discarded after his service to Phoenix. We hear no more of his 
produce afterwards. There was no pziblic Herd Book then ; nothing 
but Colling's own private record to show Lady's lineage ; nor, as we 
shall soon show, did the public then, or even at the sale in 1810, 
fourteen years afterwards, positively know the fact. These things all 
put together fully prove, as we think, that Mr. Berry got up the story 
of the Galloway bastard's pretended improvement to answer a purpose 
of his own. 

Colling's best bulls were used in each cross on "Lady," and her 
female produce, Countess and Laura, and their female progeny, so 
that Youatt, in a foot note to Berry's exalted estimate of the good 
quality of " Lady," remarks : " The dam of Lady was also the dam 
of the bull Favorite ; and as the Grandson of Bolingbroke is not 
known to have been the sire of any other remarkably good animal, 
it is most probable that the unquestionable merit of Lady and her 
descendants is to be attributed more to her dam than to her sire." 

In the year 18 10 Charles Colling made a public sale of his herd 
and retired from breeding, having realized a fortune sufficiently ample 
for the residue of his days. A more extended account of this sale 
will be given in subsequent pages, as we wish now to follow the 
" Alloy " blood until it passed out of his hands. The account is taken 
from the (English) Times, of Friday, October 19, 1810. The prices 
and purchasers' names of the "Alloy," as reported at the sale, are 
here quoted : 

Lady [by Grandson of Bolingbroke, one-eighth Galloway], 14 years 
old, to C. Wright, Cleasby, Yorkshire, 206 guineas ($1,071). 

Countess [daughter of Lady, one-sixteenth Galloway], by Cupid, 
to Major B. Rudd, 400 guineas ($2,080). 

Laura [daughter of Lady, one-sixteenth Galloway], by Favorite, 4 
years old, to Mr. Grant, Lincolnshire, 210 guineas ($1,092). 

Selina [daughter of Countess above, and one-thirty-second part 
Galloway], by Favorite, 5 years old, to Sir H. C. Ibbotson, Denton 
Park, Yorkshire, 200 guineas ($1,040). 

5 



66 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

Cora [daughter of Countess above, and one-thirty-second part 
Galloway], by Favorite, 4 years old, to G. Johnson, Yorkshire, 70 
guineas ($364). 

Major (397) [son of Lady, above, and one-sixteenth part Gallo- 
way], by Comet (155), to Mr. Grant, Lincolnshire, 200 guineas 
($1,040). 

Alexander (22) [son of Cora, above, and one-sixty-fourth part 
Galloway], by Comet (155), 1 year old, to W. C. Fenton, 63 guineas 
($323). 

Young Favorite (254) [a calf, and, son of Countess, above, and 
one-thirty-second part Galloway], by Comet, to P. Skipworth, Lin- 
colnshire, 140 guineas ($728). 

George (276) [before mentioned, a calf, and a son of Lady, by 
Comet, and one-sixteenth part Galloway], to Mr. Walker, Yorkshire, 
130 guineas ($676). 

Young Laura [daughter of Laura, by Comet, and one-thirty-second 
part Galloway], 2 years old, to Earl of Lonsdale, 101 guineas ($525). 

Young Countess [daughter of Countess, by Comet, and one-thirty- 
second part Galloway], 2 years old, to Sir H. C. Ibbotson, 206 guineas 
($1,071). 

Lucilla [calf, daughter of Laura, by Comet, and one-thirty-second 
part Galloway], to Mr. Grant, 106 guineas ($551). 

Calista [calf, daughter of Cora, by Comet, and one-sixty-fourth 
part Galloway], to Sir Henry Vane Tempest, Durham, 50 guineas 
($250). 

These thirteen animals are all we find of the " Alloy " blood in 
that celebrated sale, and the prices which they brought, are most of 
them extraordinary in comparison to those for the other thirty-four 
pure Short-horns sold at the same time. The entire lot of thirteen 
females, sold for $10,816, or an average of $832 each. But, when it 
is recollected that these Alloys had only a small fraction of Gallo- 
way blood in them, and were got by Colling's best bulls, and far 
above the others in fiesh (the "Alloys" being very moderate milkers), 
and most of them sold to the newer breeders who were taken by the 
good looks of the animals, the high prices will be readily accounted 
for. 

Let us now see what was afterwards said of the Galloway or 
"Alloy" cross. "Mr. Mason (a noted Short-horn breeder) stated 
that he did not recollect any experienced breeder who made an offer 
for the mixed breed, and he was sure that if Charles Colling had not 
made that mistake, his stock at Ketton would have sold for some 



THE GALLOWAY CROSS. 6 1 / 

thousand pounds more. This was read by Col. Mellish at the King's 
Head (tavern), Darlington, and caused great consternation in the 
neighborhood, as the catalogue did not mention any particulars of 
the breeding of Grandson of Bolingbroke." [It will be remembered 
that the first volume E. H. B., containing the pedigrees of Short- 
horn cattle was not published until 1822, twelve years after the sale.] 
" Many were disappointed, and others said if they had known of the 
transaction they would not have purchased. Mr. Robert Colling 
also told Mr. Wiley that he had no doubt it was quite a thousand 
pounds (35,000) loss to his brother having the Alloy blood in his 
herd." 

So much, therefore, for Mr. Berry's pretended "improvement" of 
the Short-horns by Charles Colling in his breeding, rearing and 
selling thirteen animals only of this Galloway cross at the final sale 
of his herd. He might, possibly, previous to the sale have bred other 
animals of that cross, but as it appears that the "Alloy" blood was 
little known out of his own neighborhood, if he did breed others, 
they might have been sold by him, and neither their names nor the 
names of their produce ever got into the Herd Books. 

To show even Colling's estimate of the value of the "Alloys," he 
never put Grandson of Bolingbroke to any superior cow, except 
Phoenix, the dam of Lady (and probably would not have used him 
with her, if she would have bred to his other bulls, which she would not). 
Nor did he use any Alloy bull, except Lady's first calf, Washington 
(694). He only put him one season, to three or four cows, and they 
produced nothing of any prominent value. " The Alloy blood was 
confined to Lady, her daughters, and the produce of her daughters ; 
nor did he suffer it to run into any other of his choice tribes. The 
Alloys were deficient in milk, which always kept them in good con- 
dition, and being round and plump in form, with fine hair, those 
qualities, in spite of their slight fraction of Galloway blood, while 
their Short-horn blood being of the very best, sold them so well. 
Nor were the prices the Alloy family brought equal to some other 
families. The Alloys averaged about 160 guineas; the Phoenix fam- 
ily, including Comet, 491 guineas (without Comet, 237 guineas); 
and the Daisy family 175 guineas." The best breeders did not touch 
the Alloys. 

Berry winds up his account with a triumphant flourish over this 
final sale of Charles Colling, in which the Alloys sold at such good 
prices, and as a consequence, claimed that the Galloway cross was 
an actual improvement in the original Short-horn blood. But it 



68 • HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

must be remembered that Berry was a partisan, was breeding the 
Alloy blood in his 6wn herd, and so states the fact, besides illustrating 
one of his Alloy cows by a portrait in the Youatt history. No new 
revelations had been made to him of the merits of that blood 
since first publishing his pamphlet (ten years previous to his Youatt 
story), in which the Galloway is not mentioned. In view of the 
whole matter, we are forced to conclude that Berry's claim of the 
Alloy improvement on the Short-horn blood and quality, was simply 
a fancy of his own. Had Youatt understood the truth of that pre- 
tended history and its unfounded assumptions, he would never have 
given it a place in his book. 

Yet there being no other Short-horn history before the public than 
his, and so many years had elapsed since the transaction, it was 
widely copied by almost every subsequent writer on Short-horn cattle, 
both in England and America, and has been so often repeated in 
agricultural periodicals, and other papers, that the great majority of 
cattle breeders, on both sides the Atlantic, have, until a recent period, 
believed it. There are few well-bred Short-horns now living which 
have more than a remote dash of the "Alloy" blood in their veins; 
and what they possess is so minute in quantity as not to be discov- 
erable to their detriment. 

We have given more space to this pretended " improvement " than 
it deserves, and but for the belief, so generally prevalent, of its truth, 
should hardly have mentioned it. Yet, honest history should be 
vindicated. It is but candid, however, to say, that in the remote 
earlier breeding of the Short-horns, stealthy crosses with other breeds 
are known to have been made ; but they are now so distant in time, 
and as no "improvement" upon the original Short-horn blood has 
been claimed for any such possible crosses, they need not be made a 
subject of remark. Alien crosses, in ages back, have been traced in 
the blood, or turf horse of England, either on the " cold " blooded 
native mares of the country, or with selected foreign ones of the 
neighboring continent; but so many pure bred crosses of English, 
Arabian, or Barb stallions have since intervened, that the well-authen- 
ticated pedigrees of modern date are acknowledged by record in the 
English Stud Books. And so with all our modern Short-horn cattle 
which can trace their pedigrees into the records of the earlier volumes 
of the English, and from them into the American Herd Books. All 
are " Herd Book " animals ; but those who prefer to run pedigrees back 
to their remotest sources, will make their selections of those strains 
of blood which best suit their genealogical preferences. 



CHARLES COLLING'S FINAL SALE. 69 

Animal physiology is so critical, and so subtle a science, and the 
laws of descent are so various in their operation, sometimes striking 
back into the characteristics of a distant ancestor deficient in good 
quality, and reproducing an almost exact likeness, that those who 
aim at the highest style of perfection in their animals will scrutinize 
closely the strains of blood through which they have descended. We 
cannot but consider that Mr. Berry, in his exaltation of the Galloway 
cross, has done a decided injury to the Short-horn interest by striv- 
ing to inculcate the belief that this noble race may be improved by 
crosses outside of their own blood, thus misleading inexperienced 
breeders, who, if they practiced on his teaching, would adopt a 
wretched system of bastardy to stain the finest breed of cattle which 
the world has produced. 

Charles Colling's Final Sale of His Herd. 

Tracing the brothers Colling through their breeding career from 
the year 1780 to 1810 with Charles, and to 1818 and 1820 with 
Robert, a period of thirty years with one, and forty years with the 
other, we have witnessed their sagacity in selecting the best stock 
obtainable from the herds of the earlier breeders in their vicinity, as 
the foundation of their own. They bred and reared them in the best 
manner, adopting a system begun by Bakewell, whom they appear to 
have taken as a model for their own future practice. Finding it suc- 
cessful they then had the enterprise to make the Short-horn race, 
previously confined to their own secluded locality, known throughout 
the richest agricultural portions of the. kingdom ; and through ani- 
mals of their own breeding, made themselves supposed the leading 
or master-spirits in their production. Each had been successful in 
his vocation, working in concert, and interchanging, to more or less 
extent, their bulls in the service of each other's herds. They orig- 
inated the system of letting bulls for the season to other breeders at 
roundly paying prices, and as a consequence sold many of them, as 
well as females, at values hitherto unparalleled in amount. 

Enjoying the prestige of success and reputation, in the month of 
October, 1810, Charles Colling made a public sale of his herd at 
Ketton, and retired from breeding. It was then the heyday of 
agricultural prosperity in the British Islands. England had engaged 
in the continental wars of Europe against the first Napoleon ; specie 
payments had been many years suspended by her banks, and at 
the national treasury; prices of agricultural produce were highly 



JO HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

inflated, and so far as pounds, shillings and pence then rated — 
probably quite double to what they were ten years afterwards — the 
sums which were bid for his cattle were both unprecedented and 
enormous. 

The approaching sale was well advertised, and its results marked 
an era in Short-horn history. An account of it was given in " The 
Times" of Friday, October 19, 1810, as previously stated. It is of 
such historical interest, and so many of our modern Short-horns run 
their genealogies back into some of the cattle of that sale that the 
entire list is quoted. The numbers to the bulls, subsequently inserted 
in Vol. 1, E. H. B., are here added. The Alloys are repeated in the 
list, and marked thus * : 

COWS. 

Lot. Guineas, 
i. Cherry, out of Old Cherry, by Favorite (252), n years old, dam of Peer- 
ess (Lot 3), Mayduke (22), and Ketton (30). Bought by J. D. Nesham, 
Haughton-le-Spring, Durham. Bulled by Comet 83 

2. Kate, 4 years old, by Comet. J. Hunt, Morton, Durham. Bulled by 

Mayduke 35 

3. Peeress, 5 years old, out of Cherry, by Favorite ; dam of Cecil (36). 

Major B. Rudd, Marton Lodge, Yorkshire. Bulled by Comet 170 

4. Countess,* 9 years old, out of Lady, by Cupid ; dam of Selina (5), Cora 

(12), Young Favorite (31), Young Countess (40). Major B. Rudd. 
Bulled by Comet 400 

5. Selina,* out of Countess, by Favorite, 5 years old. Sir H. C. Ibbotson, 

Bart., Denton Park, Yorkshire. Bulled by Petrarch 200 

6. Johanna, out of Johanna, by Favorite, 4 years old. H. Witham, Cliff 

Hall, Yorkshire. Bulled by Petrarch 130 

7. Lady,* out of Old Phoenix, by Grandson of Bolingbroke (280), 14 years 

old ; dam of Countess (4), Laura (8), Major (21), and George (32). C. 
Wright, Cleasby, Yorkshire. Bulled by Comet 206 

8. Laura,* out of Lady, by Favorite, 4 years old ; dam of Young Laura (39), 

and Lucilla (44). Grant, Wyham, Lincolnshire. Bulled by Comet. . . 210 

9. Cathalene, out of a daughter of the dam of Phoenix, by Washington 

(674), 8 years old ; dam of Charlotte (42). G. Coates for G. Parker, 
Sutton House, Malton, Yorkshire. Bulled by Comet. 150 

10. Lily, out of Daisy, by Comet, 3 years old ; dam of White Rose (46). 

Major B. Rudd. Bulled by Mayduke 410 

11. Daisy, out of Old Daisy, by a grandson of Favorite, out of Venus, 6 

years old ; dam of Lily (10), and Sir Dimple (33). Major R. Bower, 
Welham, Malton, Yorkshire. Bulled by Comet 14P 

12. CORA,* out of Countess, by Favorite, 4 years old ; dam of Alexander (27), 

and Calista (45). G. Johnston, Hackness, near Scarborough, York- 
shire. Bulled by Petrarch 70 

13. Beauty, out of Miss Washington, by Marske (417), (a son of Favorite) 

4 years old ; dam of Albion (35). C. Wright. Bulled by Comet 120 



CHARLES COLLING'S FINAL SALE. yi 

Lot. Guineas. 

14. RED ROSE, out of Eliza, by Comet, 4 years old ; dam of Harold (29). 

W. C. Fenton, Lovison, near Doncaster. Bulled by Mayduke 45 

15. Flora, 3 years old, by Comet ; dam of Narcissus (34). R. Mowbray for 

the Earl of Lonsdale. Bulled by Mayduke 70 

16. Miss Peggy, 3 years old, by a son of Favorite (253). Hill for Oliver 

Gascoigne, Partington, Yorkshire. Bulled by Comet 60 

17. Magdalene, 3 years old, by Comet, out of a heifer, by Washington ; 

dam of Ossian (28). C. Champion, Blyth, near Doncaster. Bulled 

by Comet 170 

BULLS. 

18. Comet (155), 6 years old, out of Phoenix. Wetherell, Trotter, Wright, 

and Charge, near Darlington. Got by Favorite 1000 

19. Yarborough (705), 9 years old, out of a daughter of Favorite. Greg- 

son, Low Linn, Northumberland. Got by Cupid 55 

20. Cupid (177), 11 years old, out of Venus, by a son of Favorite. Being 

rather lame was not offered for sale. 

21. Major* (397), 3 years old, out of Lady. Grant. Got by Comet 200 

22. Mayduke (424), 3 years old, out of Cherry. Smithson. Got by Comet. 145 

23. Petrarch (4S8), 2 years old, out of Venus, Major B. Rudd. Got by 

Comet 365 

24. Northumberland (464), 2 years old, out of a daughter of Favorite. 

Buston, Cotham Stob, Durham. Got by Comet 80 

25. Alfred (23), 1 year old, out of Venus. Thomas Robinson, Acklam, 

Yorkshire. Got by Comet 1 10 

26. Duke (226), 1 year old, out of Duchess. Anthony Compton, Carham 

Hall, Northumberland. Got by Comet 105 

27. Alexander* (22), 1 year old, out of Cora. W. C. Fenton. Got by Comet. 63 

28. Ossian (476), 1 year old, out of Magdalene. R. Mowbray for the Earl 

of Lonsdale. Got by Windsor (69S) 76 

29. Harold (290), 1 year old, out of Red Rose. Sir Lambton Loraine, 

Bart., Kirk Harle, Northumberland. Got by Windsor 50 

BULL CALVES, not one year old. 

30. Ketton (346), out of Cherry. Major R. Bower. Got by Comet 50 

31. Young Favorite* (254), out of Countess. P. Skipworth, Aylesby, Lin- 

colnshire. Got by Comet 40 

32. George (276),* out of Lady. Walker, Rofherham, Yorkshire. Got by 

Comet 130 

33. Sir Dimple (594), out of Daisy. T. Lax, Ravensworth, Yorkshire. Got 

by Comet 90 

34. Narcissus (447), out of Flora. C. Wright, Cleasby. Got by Comet. . . 15 

35. Albion (14), out of Beauty. T. Booth, Killerby, Durham. Got by 

Comet j. 60 

36. Cecil (120), out of Peeress. H. Strickland, Boynton, Yorkshire. Got 

by Comet 1 70 



72 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 



HEIFERS. 

L ot - Guineas. 

37. Phcebe, 3 years old, by Comet, dam by Favorite. Sir H. C. Ibbotson, 

Bart. Bulled by a son of Comet 105 

38. Young Duchess, 2 years old, by Comet, clam by Favorite. T. Bates, 

Halton Castle, Northumberland. Bulled by a son of Comet 183 

39. Young Laura,* 2 years old, by Comet, out of Laura. R. Mowbray for 

the Earl of Lonsdale. Bulled by Comet 101 

40. Young Countess * 2 years old, by Comet, out of Countess. Sir H. C. 

Ibbotson, Bart. Bulled by Comet 206 

41. Lucy, 2 years old, by Comet, dam by Washington. C. Wright. Bulled 

by Comet 132 

42. Charlotte, i year old, by Comet, out of Cathalene. T. Sale for R. 

Colling, Barmpton, Durham. Bulled by Petrarch 136 

43. Johanna, i year old, by Comet, out of Johanna. George Johnston. 

Bulled by Petrarch 35 

HEIFER CALVES. 

44. LuciLLA,* out of Laura. Grant. Got by Comet 106 

45. CALISTA * out of Cora. Sir H. V. Tempest, Wynyard, Durham. Got by 

Comet 50 

46. White Rose, out of Lily. H. Strickland, Boynton. Got by Yarbro'. 75 

47. Ruby, out of Red Rose. Major R. Bower. Got by Yarbro' 50 

48. Cowslip. R. Mowbray for the Earl of Lonsdale. Got by Comet 25 

Summary. 

29 Cows and Heifers, average, £^-A° 4s. 7d ^"4066 13s. 

18 Bulls and Calves, " 169 8 o 3°49 4 



47 averaged ^151 8s. Kd. Total, ^"7115 17 

The guinea is 21 shillings sterling; and by calculating the pound 
sterling (20s.) at $5, the sum in dollars which each animal sold for 
can be easily ascertained. 

It will here be seen that three-fourths of the 48 cattle enumerated 
were got by the bulls Favorite (252), and Comet (155) his son; and 
the other fourth by bulls of their get, and a large majority of the cows 
were in calf to Comet, which fact, undoubtedly — so high was the rep- 
utation of the bull — added much to their prices, notwithstanding 
any prejudices existing against their intense in-and-in breeding. 

We quote still further remarks relative to the sale from Thornton's 
Circular, of April, 1869 : 

" The sale was on a fine October day, and early in the morning 
people rode and drove to Ketton, leaving their horses and gigs at the 
adjoining farms ; all the strawyards were full, and the throng at the 



CHARLES COLLING'S FINAL SALE. 73 

sale immense ; everything was eaten up, so that bread had to be sent 
for into Darlington. Mr. Kingston, the auctioneer, sold the cattle by 
the sand-glass, and in accordance with the custom of the time received 
about five guineas for the business, the work of the sale falling more 
on the owner than the auctioneer. The cattle were not fed up for 
the sale, but kept naturally, and sold when they were in great condi- 
tion from natural keep. 

" The Ketton stock at this time is described by Mr. Wright as of 
great size and substance, with fine, long hind quarters ; the space from 
the hip to the rib was long and counteracted by a broad back and high, 
round ribs. The shoulders of the males were upright, and the 
knuckles, or shoulder points, large and coarse — a defect not so appa- 
rent in the females. The general contour, or side view, was stately 
and imposing, but their great superiority consisted in their extraor- 
dinary inclination to fatten. On handling, the skin was loose and 
pliant, and the feel under it remarkably mellow and kind. The color 
was greatly varied ; red, red and white, roan, and also white being 
found in the same kindred ; while in all cases of close affinity there 
was a tendency to white, with red ears and spots. 

" Many of the cows were excellent milkers, giving twelve full quarts 
at a meal. Cherry, the first lot, was one of them, a plain cow in 
color, red and a little white, whose descendants are now in exist- 
ence in the neighborhood of Stockton-on-Tees and Malton, Yorks. 
Countess [Alloy] was undoubtedly the finest cow in the sale, but she 
wanted hair and milk ; in character she came nearest to Mason's 
style, and her back and belly formed parallel lines. She produced 
three heifers and the bull Constellation (163), in Major Rudd's pos- 
session, and died in 18 16. Selina [Alloy] had the style of her dam 
Countess, but not her magnificent appearance ; she bred ten calves 
at Denton Park, and her descendants in the ninth and tenth genera- 
tions are still in existence at Siddington, Gloucestershire. Lady 
lacked elegance, but had great substance and good hair ; in color she 
was red and white. 

"Lily, pure bred, sold to Major Rudd for 400 guineas ($2,152), a 
splendid white cow, was the highest priced female, but did nothing in 
Major Rudd's possession. Daisy, a small roan cow, but a grand 
milker, was most fruitful with Major Bower; her dam, Old Daisy, who 
gave thirty-two quarts of milk a day, had been sold to Mr. Hustler, 
who bred Fairy from her, the ancestress of Rev. J. D. Jefferson's 
Lady Abbesses. This Fairy was afterwards bought by Mr. Bates, 
who reckoned her to be the finest specimen of quality imaginable ; 



74 HISTORY OF THE SHORT- HORNS. 

she had a long, thick, downy coat, with a superb flesh underneath, 
which, to a superficial observer, appeared hard, the cow being in 
a rapidly advancing condition. Cora [Alloy], out of the 400 gs. 
($2,000) Countess, had a pretty red frame, but ugly cock horns, and 
was re-sold to Major Bower, who bred ten calves from her. Magda- 
lene was a little red cow, with a large bag and belly and short 
quarters ; although the dam of the celebrated red and white bull, 
Blyth Comet (85), her only produce besides Ossian (476); she was 
not first rate and wanted hair, yet when dry had a great propensity 
to feed. 

" The only cow that Charles Colling reserved was Magdalena [by 
Comet, dam by Cupid], a great favorite and an extraordinary milker, 
giving sixteen quarts twice a day. Mr. Whitaker prevailed upon 
Charles Colling to let him have her ; the numerous and well known 
' Chaff' tribe is descended from this cow. 

"Comet (155) was the great attraction of the sale, and his close 
breeding [by Favorite (252), dam by Favorite (252), out of Favorite's 
(252) dam], did not detract from his value or appearance. Charles 
Colling declared him to be the best bull he ever bred or saw. He 
was a beautiful light roan, dark [red] neck, with a fine masculine 
head, broad and deep breast, shoulders well laid back, crops and 
loins good, hind quarters long, straight, and well packed, thighs thick, 
twist full and well let down, with nice straight hocks and hind legs. 
He had fair sized horns, ears large and hairy, and a grandeur of style 
and carriage that was indescribable.* It was admitted that no bull 
so good had ever before been seen, and eminent breeders have since said 
that they never again saw his equal. In one point, however, opinions 
differed. Some few objected to his shoulders as not being good, or a 
little too strong in the knuckles ; others asserted that he was there, as 
in every other point, faultless. The near shoulder was slightly shrunk 
in, apparently diseased, which may have arisen from a violent sprain 
that he received when a calf. When brought into the ring, he was 
put up at 600 guineas. Thomas Newton, a small dairyman at Bishop 
Auckland, bid 850 guineas, and Mr. John Wright, standing beside 
him, asked why he bid? 'To take in cows at a good profit,' said he, 
and whilst talking the glass f run out at 1000 guineas ($5,000). Mr. 
John Hutton, of Marske, who was unable to get to the sale, bid 1600 

* Comet's portrait is represented in frontispiece of 3d volume American Herd Book. — L. F. A. 

t In those days it was a rule with the English stock auctioneers to sell by the hour or minute 
glass — an article now little known. A given number of minutes was allowed for the bidding, and 
when the sand run out the article on sale was struck off. — L. F. A. 










■;*" 



**^ 








-'& 



v? 
o 



CHARLES COLLING'S FINAL SALE. 75 

guineas for him, as well as Sir H. Vane Tempest, who was delayed, 
and drove up just as the sale was finishing. Comet was located at 
Cleasby, three miles from Darlington, and was kept in a small pad- 
dock, with a loose box in the corner. The condition of purchase 
was that the four buyers should send twelve cows each annually to 
him, and Mr. Wright was to have one extra for his keep. Mr. Wright 
died in the meantime, and Comet gradually sank, his body breaking 
out into sores. Remus (550) is supposed to have been his last calf. 
Miss Wright kept a man expressly to attend to Comet, and when the 
bull died he was buried in the center of the paddock, and a chestnut 
tree planted on his grave. The paddock is known as ' Comet's garth ' 
[enclosure] to this day. Mr. Thornton, of Stapleton, purchased this 
field, and the tree having grown to an enormous size, was grubbed up 
on the 3d of February, 1865, and Comet's skeleton laid bare; his rib 
bone measured 2 feet 1 inch, and the leg bone, knee to ankle joint, 9 
inches to 5 inches circumference. Many of the other bones were 
quite perfect, and the Avhole are preserved in a glass case as a curi- 
osity at Stapleton, near Darlington. 

" North Star (458), own brother to Comet, and a year younger, was 
used and died at General Simpson's in Fifeshire ; he was a little lighter 
in color, but fully as fine in quality, or perhaps rather thicker, though 
not such a perfectly elegant animal as Comet. Young Phoenix, their 
dam, only produced one other calf, a heifer, that died young. 

" Major (397), a nice bull, but not particularly handsome, and of a 
red and white color, begot much good stock in Lincolnshire for many 
years. He was hired by Mr. John Charge, who bred Western Comet 
(689) by him, out of Gentle Kitty. Western Comet was acknowl- 
edged to be the best bull and finest stock getter ever brought into 
Cumberland. He was used to his daughters and granddaughters, 
and from this close alliance came the Wharfdale tribe, recently so 
successful in Ireland. Petrarch (488) was a splendid looking bull, 
but wanted hair, whilst Northumberland (464), who had big knuckles, 
was used, like Ossian (476) in Westmoreland, for several seasons, 
both becoming celebrated sires. Ketton (346) also showed strong 
knuckles, and eventually went into Nottinghamshire. Albion (14) is 
said to have done more good than any other bull used at Killerby 
[Thomas Booth's]. Young Duchess, known afterwards as Duchess 
1st [bought by Thomas Bates], was a fine red heifer, and developed 
into a large, handsome cow, with a good deal of the elegance and 
style of her sire Comet. She was never quite so splendid an animal 



?6 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

as her granddam the Duchess,* by the Daisy Bull (186). Young 
Countess, a thick, stylish, red heifer, was re-sold to Mr. Earnshaw, 
and produced three calves, twin bulls, one of which was the cele- 
brated bull Count (170), and a red and white heifer. She died from 
a broken blood vessel in 1814." 

In regard to floating rumors that Charles Colling had made use of 
Kyloe blood in his herd, Colling himself, in a private letter to the 
Rev. Henry Berry stated, "'that Hutchinson was egregiously wrong in 
charging the Collings with an indiscriminate use of Kyloe blood.' 
George Coates declared unequivocally that he never observed any- 
thing in that stock designated pure Short-horns, that could induce 
him for a moment to entertain a suspicion that the animals were 
nearly or remotely allied to the Kyloe. Mr. Charge, as well as Mr. 
Coates and C. Colling, always deemed Hubback (319) a pure Short- 
horn ; and neither he nor his descendants, when put on cows of the 
pure blood, begot any calves which denoted, in their features or 
color, any other breed than the pure Short-horn. His stock had 
capacious chests, prominent bosoms, thick mossy coats, mellow skins, 
with a great deal of fine flesh spread equally over the whole carcass, 
and were either red and white, yellow roans, or white. The produce 
of the Alloy blood f increased in size, rotundity, and heavy flesh, but 
afterwards seemed to lose their fine hair and milking properties. The 
highest priced cows at the sale were those in the highest condition, 
and they were mostly of the Alloy blood." 

That sale finished the vocation of Charles Colling as a Short-horn 
breeder. He lived in retirement twenty-six years afterwards, and 
died in the year 1836, at the patriarchal age of 85 years, leaving 
no children. 

Robert Colling's Sale of 1818. 

Eight years after the sale of Charles' herd, Robert Colling, in the 
year 1818, made a partial sale of his herd, and in 1820 the closing 
sale, which finished his career as a breeder. At the time of his first 
sale in 181 8, he had been before the public as a leading and prom- 
inent breeder thirty-eight years, and at his final sale in 1820, forty 
years. During all that time, like his brother Charles, he had been a 
large seller of stock as well as considerable purchaser. He sold his 
surplus animals to other breeders, through which the blood of many 

* Frontispiece to Cows, Vol. 3, American Herd Book. — L. F. A. 
t These were all hy thorough-bred bulls. — L. F. A. 



ROBERT COLLING'S SALE. J J 

of his best animals were imparted to their herds, since become 
famous. Like his brother Charles, wherever he had found a well- 
bred female whose superior good qualities pleased him, if it were pos- 
sible, he also availed himself, by purchase, of her merits. 

As with the sale of Charles in 1810, the widely advertised first sale 
of Robert in 1S1S, with a greater number of animals, brought a large 
attendance of the most spirited breeders of England. It took place 
on the 29th and 30th days of September. The following account of 
the sale is given : 

COWS. 

Lot. Guineas. 

1. Red Rose, 17 years old, by Favorite (252), dam by Ben (70), gr. d. by 

Foljambe, g. gr. d. by Hubback. Having a complaint upon her, was 
not offered for sale. 

2. Moss Rose, ii years old, by Favorite, dam lot 1. Being not likely to 

breed again, was not offered for sale. 

3. Juno, ii years old, by Favorite, dam Wildair by Favorite, gr. d. by Ben, 

g. gr. d. by Hubback, g. g. gr. d. by sire of Hubback, g. g. g. gr. d. 
by Sir James Pennyman's bull, descended from the stock of the late 
Sir W. St. Quintin, of Scampston. Bought by the Hon. J. B. Simpson, 
Babworth, Nottinghamshire. Bulled by Lancaster (360) 78 

4. Diana, own sister to lot 3. Lord Althorp, Wiseton, Nottinghamshire, 

afterwards Earl Spencer. Bulled by Lancaster 73 

5. Sally, ii years old, by Favorite, dam by Favorite, gr. d. by Favorite. 

W. Smith, Dishley, Leicestershire 34 

6. Charlotte, 9 years old, by Comet (155), dam (Cathalene). Bought at 

the Ketton sale. F. Brown, Welbourn, Grantham, Lincolnshire. 
Bulled by Midas (435) 50 

7. Wildair, 6 years old, by George (275), dam Wildair by Favorite. Sister 

to lot 3. C. Duncombe, Duncombe Park, Yorks, afterwards Lord 
Feversham. Bulled by Lancaster 176 

8. Lily, 6 years old, by North Star (459), dam by Favorite, gr. d. by Favor- 

ite, g. gr. d. by Favorite. P. Skipworth, Aylesby, Lincolnshire. 
Bulled by Lancaster 66 

9. Golden Pippin, 6 years old, by North Star, dam by Favorite, gr. d. by 

Favorite, g. gr. d. by Favorite, from the cow that obtained the first 
premium given at Darlington. W. Cattle (re-sold to Whitaker, 
Greenholme, Otley). Bulled by Lancaster 141 

10. Blackwell, 6 years old, by Wellington (680), descended from the stock 

of the late Mr. Hill. T. Hopper, Sherburn, Durham. Bulled by 
Lancaster 31 

11. Tulip, 6 years old, by George, dam by Favorite, gr. d. by Favorite, g. gr. 

d. by Favorite. C. Tibbets. Barton Seagrave, Northamptonshire. 
Bulled by Barmpton (54) 70 



73 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

Lot. Guineas. 

12. Trinket, 6 years old, by Barmpton, clam by Favorite, g. gr. d. by Favor- 

ite. W. Smith. Bulled by Lancaster 143 

13. Mary Anne, 6 years old, by George, dam by Favorite, gr. d. by Punch. 

W. Smith. Bulled by Midas 62 

14. Louisa, 5 years old, by Wellington, dam by Favorite, gr. d. by Favorite. 

W. Smith. Bulled by Lancaster 37 

15. Empress, 5 years old, by Barmpton, dam Lady Grace, by Favorite. C. 

Champion, Blyth, Nottinghamshire. Bulled by Lancaster 210 

16. Caroline, 5 years old, by Minor (441), dam (Wildair) by Favorite. H. 

William, Lartington, Yorks. Bulled by Lancaster 160 

17. Clarissa, 4 years old, by Wellington, dam by Favorite, gr. d. by Favor- 

ite, g. gr. d. by Favorite. T. Robson, Holtby (re-sold to Right Hon. 
C. Arbuthnot, Woodford Lodge, Northamptonshire). Bulled by Lan- 
caster 151 

18. Young Moss Rose, 5 years old, by Wellington, dam (2). C. Duncombe. 

Bulled by Lancaster igo 

19. Venus, 5 years old, by Wellington, dam by George, gr. d. by Favorite, 

g. gr. d. by Punch (531), from a sister to the dam of the White Heifer 

that Traveled. Hon. J. B. Simpson. Bulled by Lancaster 195 

20. Rosette, 4 years old, by Wellington, dam (1). Lord Althorp. Bulled 

by Lancaster 300 

21. Young Charlotte, 3 years old, by Wellington, dam (6). R. Thomas, 

Eryholme, Durham. Bulled by Lancaster 72 

22. Vesper, 3 years old, by Wellington, dam by Favorite, gr. d. by Favorite. 

Dam sister to Trinket's dam. J. White, Coates, Leicestershire. 
Bulled by Lancaster in 

23. Nonpareil, 5 years old, by Wellington, dam (3). Lord Althorp. Bulled 

by Lancaster 370 

24. DAISY, 3 years old, by Wellington, dam by Favorite. Hon. J. B. Simp- 

son. Bulled by Lancaster 32 

25. Kate, 3 years old, by Wellington, dam by Phenomenon (491), gr. d. by 

Favorite. H. Witham, Cliff Hall, Yorkshire. Bulled by Lancaster. 50 

26. Amelia, 2 years old, by Lancaster, dam by North Star, gr. d. by Favor- 

ite, g. gr. d. by Punch. J. C. Maynard, Harsley Hall, Yorkshire. 
Bulled by Barmpton 76 

27. AURORA, twin sister to 26. W. Smith. Bulled by Barmpton . 78 

28. Princess, 2 years old, by Lancaster, dam (9). P. Skipworth. Bulled by 

Barmpton 156 

29. Clara, 2 years old, by Lancaster, dam (19). R. Thomas. Bulled by 

Barmpton 190 

30. Fanny, 2 years old, by Wellington, dam (5). C. Tibbets. Bulled by 

Barmpton 160 

31. White Rose, 2 years old, by Wellington, dam by Wellington, gr. d. by 

Favorite. W. Smith. Bulled by Barmpton 51 

32. Ruby, 2 years old, by Wellington, dam (1). T. Robson. Bulled by 

Lancaster , 331 



ROBERT COLLING'S SALE. 79 

Lot. Guineas. 

33. LAVINIA, 2 years, by Lancaster, dam (18). T. Robson. Bulled by 

Barmpton 105 

34. Hebe, 2 years old, by Jupiter (345), dam (S). J. Thompson, Scremers- 

ton, Berwick-on-T\veed. Bulled by Barmpton 90 

35. Jessy, 2 years old, by Wellington, dam from the stock of the late Mr. 

Hill. J. Hutchinson, Stockton-on-Tees. Bulled by Barmpton 43 

36. Jewel, 2 years old, twin sister to 35. F. Brown. Bulled by Lancaster. 50 

HEIFERS AND HEIFER CALVES. 

37. Violet, by North Star, dam by Midas, gr. d. by Punch. P. Skipworth. 4S 

38. Sweetbrier, by North Star, dam (23). J. C. Maynard 145 

39. Snowdrop, by Wellington, dam (11). Thompson, Stockton, Durham.. . 71 

40. Cowslip, by Wellington, dam by Favorite, gr. d. by Punch. Leighton, 

North Willingham, Lincolnshire 54 

41. Lady Ann, by Wellington, dam by George, gr. d. (3). W. Wetherell, 

Holme House, Darlington 100 

42. Flora, by Lancaster, dam (5). J. Thompson 47 

43. Cleopatra, by Lancaster, dam by George, gr. d. by Favorite, g. gr. d. 

by Punch. W. Wetherell 133 

44. Restless, by Lancaster, dam (17) ; calved Sept. 26, 1817. T. Robson. 52 

45. A Heifer, by Lancaster, dam (12) ; calved 28th October. S. Wiley, 

Brandsby, Yorkshire 56 

46. Miss Colling, by Wellington, dam by Wellington ; calved October 20. 

W. Smith 28 

47. A Roan Heifer, by Lancaster, dam (13) ; calved November 16. W. 

Cattle (G. Alderson, Ferrybridge) 42 

48. Louisa, by Lancaster, dam (14) ; calved November 20th. Hon. J. B. 

Simpson 38 

49. A Red and White Heifer, by Barmpton, dam (15). C. Champion. . . 100 

50. Rosina, by Barmpton, dam (20). T. Robson for C. Arbuthnot 123 

51. Laura, by Barmpton, dam (6). Major B. Rudd, Marton Lodge, York- 

shire 55 

52. Barmpton Trinket, by Barmpton, dam (12). Hon. J. B. Simpson. ... 110 

53. Amelia, by Barmpton, dam by Cleveland (144), gr. d. by Comet, g. gr. d. 

by Favorite. J. White 80 

BULLS. 

54. MARSKE (4i3), 12 years old, by Favorite, dam by Favorite, gr. d. by 

Favorite, g. gr. d. by Punch, g. g. gr. d. by Hubback, g. g. g. gr. d. by 
the sire of Hubback, g. g. g. g. gr. d. by Sir James Pennyman's bull, 
descended from the stock of the late Sir W. St. Quintin, of Scampston. 
J. C. Maynard 50 

55. North Star (459), 11 years old, by Favorite, dam Yellow Cow, by Punch. 

T. Lax, Ravensworth, Yorkshire 72 

56. Midas (435), 10 years old, by Phenomenon, dam (1). S. Wiley 270 



80 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

Lot. Guineas. 

57. Barmpton (54), 8 years old, by George, dam (2). Being lame was not sold. 

58. Major (398), 5 years old, by Wellington, dam by Phenomenon, gr. d. by 

Favorite, g. gr. d. by Favorite. W. Brooks, Laceby, Lincolnshire. . . . 185 

59. Lancaster (360), 4 years old, by Wellington, dam (2). Hon. J. B Simp- 

son and W. Smith 621 

60. Baronet (62), 3 years old, by Wellington, dam (1). Being engaged, was 

not put up. 

61. Regent (544), 3 years old, by Wellington, dam Rosebud, by Windsor, 

gr. d. (1). Lord Althorp 145 

BULL CALVES. 

62. Diamond (206), 1 year old, by Lancaster, dam (19). Donaldson, Har- 

burn House, Durham 102 

63. Albion (17), rising 1 year old, by Lancaster, dam by Wellington, gr. d. 

by Favorite, g. gr. d. by a son of Favorite. Russell, Brancepeth Cas- 
tle, Durham 140 

64. Harold (291), rising 1 year old, by Wellington, dam (7). J. Whitaker, 

Greenholme, Otley, Yorks 201 

65. Pilot (496), rising 1 year old, by either Major or Wellington (being bulled 

by both), dam (1). J. Booth, Killerby, Yorkshire 270 

Summary. 

51 Cows and Heifers, average ^m 13s. od. ,£5694 3s. 

10 Bulls and Bull Calves, " 215 17 7 2158 16 

61 averaged ^128 14s. 9d. Total, .£7852 19 



Robert Colling's Closing Sale in 1820. 

The final closing sale of Robert Colling was made on October 3d, 
1820, and like that of 1818, attracted wide attention. The account 
of it is thus given : 

COWS. 

Lot. Guineas. 

i. Snowdrop, 3 years old, by Wellington, dam by Favorite. G. Alderson, 

Ferrybridge. Bulled by Barmpton 20 

2. Old Dinsdale, 10 years old, by Phenomenon, dam by Favorite. J. 

Hepworth, Rogerthorpe, Pontefract, Yorks. Bulled by Barmpton.. . . 27 

3. Young Dinsdale, 6 years old, by Wellington, dam lot 2. W. Asheton, 

Brandon House, Coventry, Warwickshire. Bulled by Adonis (8) 54 

4. Crystal, 5 years old, by Cleveland, dam by Comet, gr. d. by Favorite. 

R. Dobson, Bishop Auckland, Durham. Bulled by Young Lancaster 
(361) 42 

5. Lady, 4 years old, by Wellington. S. Wiley, Brandsby, York. Bulled 

by Barmpton 26 



ROBERT COLLING'S CLOSING SALE. 8l 

Lot. Guineas. 

6. Pomona, 6 years old, by Wellington, dam by Favorite. J. G. Dixon, 

Holton-le-Moor, Lincolnshire. Bulled by Barmpton 27 

7. Cicely, 12 years old, by Favorite, dam by Punch. W. Smith, Dishley, 

Leicestershire. Bulled by Barmpton 22 

8. Cherry, 5 years old, bought of G. Coates, near Darlington. R. Fletcher, 

Burdon, Yorkshire. Bulled by Barmpton 22 

9. Kate, 3 years old, by Wellington. Major Rudd, Marton, Cleveland. 

Bulled by Barmpton 28 

10. White Rose, 5 years old, by Wellington. W. Jobson, Newtown, near 

Chillingham. Bulled by Barmpton 51 

11. Strawberry, 5 years old, by Wellington, dam by Favorite. J. G. Dixon, 

Holton-le-Moor, Lincolnshire. Bulled by Barmpton 30 

Lots 12 to 18, inclusive, were Horses. 

TWO-YEAR-OLD HEIFERS. 

19. Iris, by Barmpton, dam Backwell, lot 10 in the sale catalogue for 1818. 

J. Hepworth. Bulled by Barmpton 19 

20. Wildair, by Barmpton, dam Wildair, lot 7 in the sale, 1818. J. Graham, 

Netherby, Cumberland. Bulled by Barmpton 35 

21. Diana, by Young Barmpton (55), dam lot 3. P. Skipworth, Aylesby, 

Lincolnshire. Bulled by Barmpton. . . . ' 51 

22. Daisy, by Barmpton, dam Daisy, lot 24 in the sale, 18 18. W. Donkin, 

Sandhoe, near Hexham. Bulled by Barmpton 101 

23. Lily, by Barmpton, dam Lily, lot 8 in the sale, 1818. G. Alderson, 

Ferrybridge. Bulled by Barmpton 102 

24. Caroline, calved in 1817, by Young Barmpton, dam Wildair, lot 7 in 

the sale, 1818. Dinning, Newlands, near Belford. Bulled by Barmp- 
ton 53 

25. Damsel, by Barmpton, dam lot 2. R. Jobson, Turvelaws, near Wooler, 

Northumberland. Bulled by Barmpton 58 

26. Countess, by Barmpton, dam Young Charlotte, lot 21 in the sale, 1818. 

W. Jobson. Bulled by Barmpton 68 

27. Young Nonpareil, by Barmpton, dam Nonpareil, lot 23 in the sale, 

1818. W.Smith. Bulled by Barmpton 151 

28. Sally, by Alexander. W. Robinson, St. Helens Auckland, Durham. 

Bulled by Barmpton 33 

29. Bell, by Major. Henderson, Belford, Northumberland. Bulled by 

Barmpton 16 

30. Arabella, by Lancaster. Henderson. Bulled by Adonis 32 

ONE-YEAR-OLD HEIFERS. 

31. Flora, a roan, by Lancaster. R. Ferguson, Harker Lodge, Carlisle.. . . 15 

32. Lucy, a roan, by Lancaster, dam by Favorite. Hon. J. B. Simpson. ... 30 

33. Betsy, a mottled, by Lancaster. G. Alderson 14 

34. Mary, a white, by Lancaster. G. Alderson 10M 

35. Sprightly, a light roan, by Lancaster. Dinning 25 

6 



82 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

HEIFER CALVES, in 1820. 

Lot. Guineas. 

36. Miss Colling, a roan, by Barmpton, dam lot 6. J. Claridge, Jerveaux 

Abbey, Yorkshire 19 

37. A Light Roan, by Barmpton. Major Rudd ii/£ 

38. Barmpton Strawberry, a red fleck, calved April 1, by Barmpton, dam 

lot II. Hon. J. B. Simpson 30 

39. A Roan, by Barmpton. W. Harrison, Neasham Lane, near Darlington. 6 

40. A Roan, by Barmpton. Major Rudd 4% 

41. A Light Roan, by Barmpton. Major Rudd 4 

42. Dinsdale, fleck red and white, by Barmpton, dam lot 2. W. Smith, 

Dishley 22 

43. Miss Colling, a light roan, by Barmpton, dam lot 5. S. Wiley 20 

44. A Red Roan, by Barmpton, dam lot 9. Major Rudd 25 

45. A Fleck, by Barmpton, dam lot 3. S. Wiley 17 

BULLS. 

46. Barmpton (54), 10 years old, by George, dam Moss Rose, lot 2 in the 

sale, 1818. R. Thomas, Airy Holme, near Darlington 115 

47. Baronet (62), 5 years old, by Wellington, dam Red Rose, lot 1 in the 

sale, 1818. Sir C. Loraine, Bart., Kirk Harle, Northumberland 350 

48. Young Barmpton (55), 3 years old, by Wellington, dam a daughter of 

Juno, lot 3 in the sale, 1818. J. Graham 130 

BULLS one year old. 

49. Young Lancaster (361), by Lancaster, dam lot 3. J. Pearson, Acklam, 

Cleveland 73 

50. Adonis (8), by Lancaster. H. Vansittart, Kirkleatham, Yorkshire 50 

BULL CALVES. 

51. A Light Roan, by Barmpton, dam lot 4. M. Culley, Fowberry, North- 

umberland 16 

52. Eclipse (238), a light roan, calved in July, 1820, by Barmpton, dam lot 

27. T. Charge, Newton, Yorkshire 100 

53. A Light Roan, by Barmpton, dam lot 1. Clayton, Halnaby, Yorkshire. 10 

Summary. 

38 Cows and Heifers, average, £ 36 10s. 4d. ^1387 lis. 6d. 

8 Bulls and Calves, " 110 15 6 886 4 



46 averaged £49 8s. 7d. Total, ^2273 15 6 

Total of the two sales, ,£10,126 14s. 6d. Average of 107 head, ^94 12s. iod. 

Following this last sale we find a running summary of Robert 
Colling's herd and breeding in Thornton's Circular. Although in 
some parts it has been already given in previous pages, it is so full 
of connected interest that we insert it entire : 



ROBERT COLLING'S CATTLE. 83 

" Robert Colling, the elder of the two brothers, was born at Sker- 
ningham, and when a youth was apprenticed to a large grocer; his 
health being delicate he returned home and joined his brother Charles 
in partnership, until Charles went to Ketton, and Robert took the 
Barmpton farm in the spring of 1783, having previously resided at 
Hurworth ; he often visited Mr. Culley, and imitated many of his 
principles of farming, more especially turnip growing, and in later 
years his own farming at Barmpton became high and excellent in 
every degree. For many years his Leicester sheep, which were 
obained from Bakewell, were more successful than his Short-horns, 
and his Ram shows or lettings were continued for many years. Mr. 
Wiley, of Brandsby, took sheep of him for fourteen years in succes- 
sion, and upon one particular occasion asked him what a good 
Short-horn should be like. Pointing to one of his finest tups, called 
Shoulders (from the excellence of that point), Mr. Colling advised 
him to breed his cattle like that. A favorite expression of his was to 
liken his cattle to a barrel ; he did not approve of the breast being 
very prominent, preferring it rather short but very thick and wide, 
especially between the fore legs, as he generally considered beasts 
with very prominent breasts had thin shoulders and chine, and lacked 
width and substance in their fore quarters. 

" Improved Short-horns, however, did not at first attract his atten- 
tion. Sheep were the profit of the farm, and no doubt in later days 
the ram lettings led to bull hirings, as they do at Aylesby, at Given- 
dale, at Brandsby, and elsewhere, even to this day. Bailey wrote in 
18 10, after an experience of Durham county for forty years, that 
' Robert Colling has frequently crossed with the improved Short- 
horned bulls and the best Kyloe cows he could procure ; the produce 
made very fat and much earlier than the pure Kyloe ; but he has now 
given it up, finding that the pure improved Short-horns are more 
profitable.' 

"Although Mr. Robert Colling had several tribes, and went to 
different breeders for his original cattle, yet the majority of those 
animals which were sold in the 18 18 sale, were descended from four 
families, of which some account will now be given. 

" It appears that some of his earliest stock came from Mr. Milbank 
of Barningham, about 1780. These were supposed to be the best 
Teeswater cattle, and noted for their excellent grazing properties. 
The original of the Yellow Cow, by Punch (531), came from this 
stock; and her descendants were Venus, lot 19; Clara, lot 29; and 
Diamond (206), lot 62, got by Lancaster (360), out of Venus, all sold 



84 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

for high prices in the 1818 sale. Of Diamond, Mr. Dickson in an 
essay on judging, said that he was small, of beautiful symmetry, and 
a perfect model, with a thick, fine coat. The Yellow Cow, by Punch, 
bred a heifer,* by Favorite (252), which heifer was the dam of the 
'White Heifer that Traveled.' No record gives the date of this 
white heifer's birth (supposed 1806), but the fashion at that time of 
feeding to an enormous weight, and the success of John Day in his 
wanderings with the Durham Ox, induced two butchers to purchase 
her for exhibition. Unlike John Day, they left no pamphlet of the 
'pure genuine breed,' nor of their travels throughout the country. 
A small handbill alone tells of the merits of the White Heifer; it 
runs as follows : 

" ' To be seen at the stables of the Three Kings, Piccadilly, near 
the Glo'ster Coffee House, the greatest wonder in the world of the 
kind, the wonderful Durham fat heifer, of the improved Short- 
horned breed, which weighs 306 stone (8 lbs.) [2,448 lbs.], bred 
and fed by Robert Colling, of Barmpton, near Darlington, in the 
county of Durham. She is sister (half sister by the sire) to the 
Durham Ox and bull Comet (155), which was sold for 1000 guineas 
at the sale of Charles Colling, Esq., at Ketton, for which 1500 guineas 
has since been offered. This heifer is now the property of Messrs. 
Robinson and Spark. It is particularly worthy of notice that this 
justly-celebrated heifer was a twin.f A correct portrait of this beau- 
tiful heifer has been taken by Mr. Weaver, of Shrewsbury, from which 
an engraving (by Mr. Ward, an eminent artist in London) and prints 
taken from it are published at one guinea each. \ Printed by Mr. 
Glendon, Rupert street, Haymarket.' 

" Mr. Bailey said also, that ' Mr. Robert Colling has a white heifer, 
four years old, a perfect counterpart of his brother Charles' ox, being, 
like him, completely covered over her whole carcass with fat ; she is 
estimated to weigh 130 stone (14 lbs.), [1820 lbs.] Mr. Robert Colling 
also sold at Darlington Market, April 18, 1808, a two-year- old steer 
for ^22, supposed to weigh 63 stone (14 lbs.), the price of the fat 
stock being 7s. per stone. The Yellow Cow put to Favorite (252), 
produced lot 55, North Star (459). At the time of the sale he was 
eleven years old, a grand old bull, with fine hair and handling. 
Mr. Wetherell used him at Holme House two years, Mr. Wiley had 

* Called " Favorite Cow," recorded p. 310, Vol. 1, English Herd Book. — L. F. A. 
t She was twinned with a bull — a free marten, and of course, barren. — L. F. A. 
X White Heifer's portrait is frontispiece to Vol. 5, American Herd Book. — L. F. A. 



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ROBERT COLLING'S CATTLE. 8$ 

him also for a period at 120 guineas, and Mr. Hustler also. He 
was sire of the highest priced heifer, Sweetbrier, lot 60, and of Gol- 
den Pippin, lot 9. Venus appears to have bred a bull, Adonis (7), 
and a heifer with the Hon. J. B. Simpson, and Clara two bulls — 
one of them Eryholme (1018), and a heifer with Mr. Thomas. Sir 
H. Vane Tempest bought Tragedy of this tribe privately from Mr. 
Robert Colling, and through Sir Charles Knightley's herd we believe 
descendants of this line may still be traced. 

"Another tribe (Wildair or Hubback tribe) came originally from the 
stock of Sir William St. Quintin, of Scampston. This was a favorite 
family with Mr. Robert Colling, who considered (Major Rudd stated) 
that this tribe came from the same source as Hubback (319). Juno, 
lot 3, and Diana, lot 4, sisters, were of it, also Wildair, lot 7, and 
Nonpareil, lot 23, the highest priced cow, a fine roan, considered the 
best animal in the sale, and one of the finest cows ever seen. Her 
heifer, Sweetbrier, lot 38, bought by Mr. Maynard, was a red and 
white, and made the greatest price among the heifers. Marske (418) 
was of this family, and although in his twelfth year made 50 guineas. 
He had previously been hired by Mr. Hutton, of Marske, whence his 
name ; by Mr. Bates, and Lord Strathmore. Earl Spencer was not 
fortunate with those he purchased, as most of their produce died or 
brought bull calves. Nor was the Hon. J. B. Simpson lucky with his. 
At Mr. Maynard's sale in 1839, descendants of Sweetbrier, made the 
highest prices. One of them, May Rose (103 guineas), was bought 
by Mr. Wetherell for Mr. Fox, Ireland, with whom she bred four 
calves, and was purchased in 1841 by Mr. Parkinson, of Ley Fields. 
Formosa (38 guineas), out of May Rose's dam, was bought as a heifer 
by Mr. Houldsworth, of Farnsfield, and at his sale in 1841, Mr. Torr 
bought her heifer, Flora of Farnsfield, as a yearling, for 41 guineas. 
It is from this heifer that the Flower tribe, the finest animals at 
Aylesby, are bred, and which trace directly back to this favorite 
family of Mr. Robert Colling. Lord Feversham's Wildair bred one 
heifer, Phoenix, and four bulls, amongst them Emperor (1013). At 
Barmpton she first produced Caroline, lot 16, and the celebrated bull 
Harold (291), lot 64. This bull, a white, was used by Mr. Wiley, and 
went to Messrs. Whitaker, Alderson, and Earnshaw. In the 1820 sale 
the highest priced female is also of this tribe, viz. : Young Nonpareil, 
lot 27, sold for 151 guineas to Mr. W. Smith. She bred three bulls, 
and was sold in 1827 to the Earl of Chesterfield. Her son, lot 52, 
Eclipse (238), was used by Messrs. Craddock & Charge. 



ROBERT COLLING'S CATTLE. 85 

him also for a period at 120 guineas, and Mr. Hustler also. He 
was sire of the highest priced heifer, Sweetbrier, lot 60, and of Gol- 
den Pippin, lot 9. Venus appears to have bred a bull, Adonis (7), 
and a heifer with the Hon. J. B. Simpson, and Clara two bulls — 
one of them Eryholme (10 18), and a heifer with Mr. Thomas. Sir 
H. Vane Tempest bought Tragedy of this tribe privately from Mr. 
Robert Colling, and through Sir Charles Knightley's herd we believe 
descendants of this line may still be traced. 

"Another tribe (Wildair or Hubback tribe) came originally from the 
stock of Sir William St. Quintin, of Scampston. This was a favorite 
family with Mr. Robert Colling, who considered (Major Rudd stated) 
that this tribe came from the same source as Hubback (319). Juno, 
lot 3, and Diana, lot 4, sisters, were of it, also Wildair, lot 7, and 
Nonpareil, lot 23, the highest priced cow, a fine roan, considered the 
best animal in the sale, and one of the finest cows ever seen. Her 
heifer, Sweetbrier, lot 38, bought by Mr. Maynard, was a red and 
white, and made the greatest price among the heifers. Marske (418) 
was of this family, and although in his twelfth year made 50 guineas. 
He had previously been hired by Mr. Hutton, of Marske, whence his 
name ; by Mr. Bates, and Lord Strathmore. Earl Spencer was not 
fortunate with those he purchased, as most of their produce died or 
brought bull calves. Nor was the Hon. J. B. Simpson lucky with his. 
At Mr. Maynard's sale in 1839, descendants of Sweetbrier, made the 
highest prices. One of them, May Rose (103 guineas), was bought 
by Mr. Wetherell for Mr. Fox, Ireland, with whom she bred four 
calves, and was purchased in 1841 by Mr. Parkinson, of Ley Fields. 
Formosa (38 guineas), out of May Rose's dam, was bought as a heifer 
by Mr. Houldsworth, of Farnsfield, and at his sale in 1841, Mr. Torr 
bought her heifer, Flora of Farnsfield, as a yearling, for 41 guineas. 
It is from this heifer that the Flower tribe, the finest animals at 
Aylesby, are bred, and which trace directly back to this favorite 
family of Mr. Robert Colling. Lord Feversham's Wildair bred one 
heifer, Phoenix, and four bulls, amongst them Emperor (1013). At 
Barmpton she first produced Caroline, lot 16, and the celebrated bull 
Harold (291), lot 64. This bull, a white, was used by Mr. Wiley, and 
went to Messrs. Whitaker, Alderson, and Earnshaw. In the 1820 sale 
the highest priced female is also of this tribe, viz. : Young Nonpareil, 
lot 27, sold for 151 guineas to Mr. W. Smith. She bred three bulls, 
and was sold in 1827 to the Earl of Chesterfield. Her son, lot 52, 
Eclipse (238), was used by Messrs. Craddock & Charge. 



86 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

"Golden Pippin, lot 9, and Clarissa, lot 17, were evidently from 
one tribe (Beauty or Punch tribe) ; Mr. Colling got it from Mr. G. 
Best, of Manfield, and it traces further back- than is stated in the 
catalogue. Beauty, who was from the cow that bred Punch (531), 
took a first premium at Darlington ; her excellence brought Punch 
(531), a yellow red bull, into notice. Punch was the sire of the dam 
of Charles Colling's Old Daisy, whose granddaughter, Lily, was the 
highest priced cow at the Ketton sale. Also of Ben (70), and Twin 
Brother to Ben (660), both used by Mr. Booth. Mr. Robert Colling 
said that Ben had the best blood, and he begot the dam of Red Rose, 
lot 1, and Old Wildair, own sister to the celebrated bull Phenomenon 
(491), used by Sir H. Vane Tempest, and whom Mr. Parrington con- 
sidered a finer bull than Comet (155). This line of blood is happily 
yet preserved. Mr. Whitaker bred Nonsuch and others from Golden 
Pippin ; the family then went to Mr. Maynard, from whom it has 
passed by various changes, under the name of Nonsuch, to the pres- 
ent possessor, Mr. Adkins, of Milcote. 

" There is no record from whence the Red Rose* tribe, lot 1, came. 
She was own sister to the American Cow, the first female named in 
the now fashionable Cambridge Rose line. It is said that the American 
Cow got her name from going out to America early in the century, f 
She was bred by R. Colling, and sold by him when a yearling to go to 
America. When the stock of Red Rose and Moss Rose became of 
such- note she was brought back by Mr. Hustler to England, and 
produced at Acklam in 181 1, Red Rose, by Yarborough (705), for 
which Mr. Hustler refused 400 guineas, and which Mr. Bates bought 
in 181 9. At the time of the sale Red Rose, then seventeen years old, 
had been a magnificent cow, but was very patchy; she had large 
cushions of fat on her rumps, whilst her fore quarters were light. 
Moss Rose, lot 2, her daughter by her own sire, was a very good cow, 
a handsome roan, very even, wide and massive, of fine symmetry and 
quality, but by some thought to be rather small. Red Rose had been 
a regular and excellent breeder, more especially of bulls, among 
which were Miner (441), used by Lord Strathmore and Mr. Jobling, 
with whom he got Wellington (683), Midas (435), lot 56, a great, fine 
bull, with hind quarters super-excellent, Baronet (62), lot 60, and 
Pilot (496), lot 65, also the granddam of Lord Althorpe's Regent 
(544), lot 61. Of these bulls, Midas (435), had been let to Mr. 
Robertson, Ladykirk, for three years at 300 gs., to Mr. Arbuthnot for 

* Calved in 1801, English Herd Book, Vol. 1, p. 456.— L. F. A. 
+ See page 54, ante. — L. F. A. 



ROBERT COLLING'S CATTLE. 87 

two years, at 300 gs., and into Yorkshire, making altogether, in let- 
tings and sale, 1100 guineas. Sir W. Cooke bid for him, but Mr. 
Wiley bought him for 270 guineas. He died suddenly at Brandsby, 
having got only two calves. Mr. Wiley returned to Mr. Colling 
greatly disappointed, and asked for the use of Barmpton (54), but 
Mr. Colling would not part with him then to anybody, as he consid- 
ered him one of the best bulls he ever had. The two calves, how- 
ever, turned out to Mr. Wiley a great profit; one was Midas (1230), 
and the other the famous Grazier (1085). This bull became a great 
celebrity ; he was used three years by Sir John Johnstone, who chris- 
tened him Grazier on account of his good qualities. Mr. W. Smith, 
West Rasen, had him two years, Mr. Slater one year, and Lord 
Feversham and the Earl of Carlisle for some time. He then went 
home and was used by Mr. Wiley, and afterwards, in his old age, by 
Sir John Ramsden, with whom he died in his fourteenth year, and 
was buried in his skin. He was a fine, massive bull, a dark red, and 
a little white in his fore quarters. Baronet (62), also a good bull, 
was hired by Sir Charles Loraine, who bought him in 1820, and took 
in five cows of Mr. Wetherell's at 10 guineas ($5 2 ) each. Pilot (496) 
has been described in Mr. Carr's History of the Booth Cattle ; he 
was a red and white, rather a small bull, but of good quality and a 
good stock getter. At the time of the sale, Mr. J. G. Dixon and 
Major Brown joined purses in order to buy a good bull, and Mr. 
Dixon bid from 100 to 250 guineas, at 10 guineas biddings, opposed 
by Mr. Thomas Booth, who bought him for 270 guineas ($1,404). 

" Red Rose's daughter, Rosette, lot 20, made 300 guineas, and bred 
four heifers, of which there is now no trace. At eleven years old she 
was sold at Lord Althorp's sale in 1825, for 25 guineas. Ruby, lot 
32, made the second highest female price, 331 guineas, and went into 
Mr. Robson's large herd, which is said to have contained more grand 
cows than any other herd in Lincolnshire. Moss Rose bred four 
calves, three bulls — Barmpton (54), Lancaster (360), and one that 
died young — and one heifer, lot 18, Young Moss Rose, which went to 
Lord Feversham for 190 guineas. She produced one heifer, lot ^^ 
at Barmpton, which went, with Ruby, lot 32, into Lincolnshire, and 
two heifers at Duncombe, from one of which, Beauty, by Baron (38), 
we have descendants even now at Stockeld Park. Barmpton (54) 
was a small-sized, beautiful roan bull, as neat as his dam, and got 
splendid stock ; he had a very broad back, fine quarters, but rather 
upright shoulders, and most of the heifer calves at both sales were by 
him. Mr. John Wright used him two years, first at 60, and then 70 



88 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

guineas, and he was also let to Mr. Brooks and Mr. Codd in Lincoln- 
shire ; his stock were considered to be better than North Star's (459). 
His sire, George (275), was a very magnificent bull, and an excellent 
getter ; he fell by accident and broke his neck, not before, however, 
Mr. Colling had sold privately five out of his six heifers at 200 guineas 
each. He was out of Lady Grace, the dam of Empress, lot 15, a 
grand animal, and a high priced one ; Mr. Champion bought her and 
her daughter, lot 49, but there is none of the tribe left now. Lan- 
caster (360) was a white bull, of fine quality, but narrow, thin, lanky, 
and small ; he was let as a yearling, to Major Rudd, who, at the time 
of the sale, had fourteen extraordinary two-year-old heifers, got by 
him, in one pasture, which were the talk of the country. This, per- 
haps, with the fact of his being from so grand a cow, and having 
served all the stock, made him sell so high. Mr. Whitaker was the 
chief opponent, and at 620 guineas claimed the bull; the auctioneer, 
however, ruled against him, having had another guinea bid by Messrs. 
Simpson & Smith. Mr. Whitaker then had Mr. Charge's bull, Fred- 
erick (1060). A rumor was current that Lancaster was delicate and 
unhealthy, but he got stock at Dishley till 1827 [then 14 years old], 
and at the Hon. H. B. Simpson's sale in 1838, Mr. White, the auc- 
tioneer, alluded to this rumor, and said there were animals ten years 
of age before the bull left the farm. Besides the Cambridge Roses 
and those at Stockeld Park, we believe there are a very few animals 
remaining that can now be traced to this magnificent family. 

"The two high priced heifers, lots 41 and 43, bought by Mr. 
Wetherell, were unfortunate ; when of age they were sent for service 
to Mr. Mason's, at 15 guineas each. Lady Ann died in calf with 
twins, and Cleopatra had a heifer calf that never bred ; they were 
two magnificent heifers. Lot 40, Cowslip, bred a heifer by Ratify 
(2481), called Young Cowslip. This heifer was sold to Mr. Dudding, 
of Panton, and produced a large family, from which came Mr. Rich's 
Ursula tribe, and many others from the Panton sales. 

" Of the other sources whence Mr. Robert Colling derived his 
stock, little is known, except that, like Charles, he selected the best 
county stock from his neighbors, and occasionally bought at Yarm 
fair. Mr. Watson, of Stapleton, Mr. Alexander Hall, of Haughton, 
Mr. Wright, and Mr. Best, of Manfield, supplied females, and some 
came from Mr. Hill, of Blackwell (see lot 10). It was from this stock 
of Mr. Hill's that Captain Turnell, of Reasby, Lincolnshire, got his first 
cattle, which were the originals of the well known and still favorite 



ROBERT COLLING' S CATTLE. 89 

red Turnell blood in South Lincolnshire. The following letter from 
Mr. Hutchinson relates to lots 35 and 36 : 

"'In October, 1818, when Mr. Robert Colling's sale catalogue 
came out, I was glad to perceive two heifers, Jessy and Jewel (twins) ; 
their dam from the stock of the late Mr. Hill, of Blackwell, were 
there advertised, got by Wellington (680), and the former in calf to 
Barmpton (54), both bulls highly esteemed, and Jessy herself what I 
thought an excellent heifer, and the better of the two. My idea was 
that this heifer from the Blackwell herd, with only two crosses by the 
leading bull of Mr. R. Colling's, would be a better speculation and 
more likely to breed better stock than any cow or heifer of what was 
then considered pure blood, all of which had been bred through thick 
and thin for countless generations. On Jessy's coming to the ham- 
mer, I became her purchaser at 43 guineas, the very lowest priced 
cow that day, excepting a six-year-old cow of the same breed, Old 
Blackwell ; and Mr. Brown, of Welbourn, Lincolnshire, immediately 
after bought Jewel, her twin sister, at 50 guineas. I was well satisfied 
with my bargain, and Mr. Brown expressed himself so with his. In 
the April following Jessy produced me a heifer calf, very small and 
very delicate, which, however, with great care was reared, and is now 
the heifer I invite connoisseurs to inspect. She is a wonderful and 
beautiful sight, and may safely challenge a comparison for excellence 
with the highest priced cows of that day. Jessy has since produced 
me two heifers to my own bulls, which promise to make very large, 
fine cows, and she is now giving twelve quarts of milk at a meal, six 
months after calving.' 

"The sale in 1820 contained those Short-horns which were not 
in condition for sale in 1818. At this sale, Mr. J. G. Dixon of 
Caistor was the purchaser of two lots. Mrs. Charles Colling was 
present and told him that Barmpton's blood should always be kept 
sight of, as he was one of their best tribes. Strawberry was intended 
for the first sale, but she calved and did not do well, and so was 
reserved till 1820. On the long walk home she slipped calf, but bred 
well afterwards. Young Strawberry, her daughter, took a prize at 
sixteen years old, and lived till she was twenty-seven* Descendants 
of these cows are still in Mr. Dixon's possession, and their bull pro- 
duce has been disseminated among the farmers in Lincolnshire to the 
great improvement of the stock in the district. 

* Who will say that the Short-horns, as a race, lack either constitution, vitality, fertility in 
breeding, or longevity ? — L. F. A. 



90 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

" Hubback was one of the first bulls Mr. Robert Colling used, of 
which an account is given in the Ketton Short-horns. He had 
seventeen cows served by him in the season, and in November, as the 
bull was bought at Easter, Mr. Charles Colling said if the bull was 
done with for the season he would give 8 guineas for him ; he was 
sold, the original cost, 10 guineas, being divided by Mr. Robert 
Colling and Mr. Waistell. The bull took offense at a gray pony Mr. 
Robert Colling used to ride, and was a little troublesome. Manfield 
(404) was used at a very early period. Broken Horn (95), appears 
to have succeeded Hubback, and was followed by Punch (531), 
Favorite (252), Comet (155), Wellington (680), a very fine bull, used 
four seasons, and others as in the catalogue. He also had the use of 
his brother's bulls at Ketton. 

" Northumberland, Durham, Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, supplied 
most of the bull hirers, and the buyers at the sales came from those 
counties as well as Nottingham, Leicester, and Northampton. Culley, 
in his general view of the Agriculture of Northumberland, says, 
' hiring bulls for the season is practiced in this county; as high as 50 
guineas have been paid for a bull of the Short-horn breed for one 
season, and from 3 to 5 guineas given for serving a cow, but the more 
common rate is a guinea.' The principal hirers were Lord Strath- 
more, Sir H. Vane Tempest, Sir G. Strickland, Mr. Robertson, Mr. 
Jobling, Mr. Jobson, Mr. Gibson, Colonel Trotter, Major Rudd, Mr. 
Baker, Mr. Barker, Mr. Booth, Mr. Buston, Mr. Hustler, Mr. Weth- 
erell, and Mr. Wiley. Mr. Jobson also stated that prior to 1773 his 
father got bulls from Durham, and the last cross of the well known 
Sonsie tribe is a Son of Ben (70), or Punch (531). 

"At the sale in 1818 Mr. Robert Colling was asked, 'Who has your 
best blood ? ' ' Well, I think,' said he, ' Lincolnshire has got most of 
my best blood.' The breeders from Lincolnshire, who hired, were 
Mr. R. Ostler and Mr. Skipworth at Aylesby; Mr. W. Brooks and 
Mr. R. Cropper at Laceby ; Mr. J. Grant, Wyham ; and Mr. J. Codd, 
Holton, all living in the district between Grimsby and Caistor. The 
bulls were slightly shod and walked down about eight or nine miles a 
day, and age had little consideration. The most noted bulls were 
Own Brother to the White Heifer [that Traveled], Colling's (Robert) 
White Bull (151), Aylesby (44), Barmpton (54), and Major (398). 
C. Colling's Major (397), bought at the Ketton sale, was thought the 
handsomer and better of the two. 

" There is no mention made in this paper of Sir H. Vane Tempest's 
celebrated cow Princess, nor of Col. Trotter's stock, both of whom, 



ROBERT COLLING'S CATTLE. 91 

as well as Mr. Robertson, Mr. Champion, and others, bought privately 
from Mr. R. Colling. The Princess tribe may possibly be noticed in 
a future paper, when Sir H. Vane Tempest's catalogue is reprinted, 
but the name of the Sylphs (Sweethearts and Charmers) and the 
Mantalinis, the former tracing from 'Russell,' the latter from 
'Alpine,' both cows by Robert Colling's Son of Favorite (252) [the 
Son being out of a Punch cow] and from Col. Trotter's herd, are 
high evidence, even in the present day, of the excellence of the 
original Barmpton stock. 

" It has been said that Robert Colling's stock were delicate ; there 
is little foundation for this, and it may have arisen from the delicacy 
of Mr. Champion's cattle ; Mr. Paley said that the rottenness of the 
Warrior (673) family came from Diana, lot 3, and Mr. Champion's 
son attributed it to Mason's Charles (127); Mr. Bates also attributed 
delicacy to Mason's St. John (572). Land and atmosphere may have 
had something to do with this. Those who saw the herd in its best 
days, before and at the sales, say that the cattle were always seen in 
good condition and shewed vigorous constitutions ; it is, however, a 
singular fact that we have now scarcely any stock remaining from 
those animals that went into the Retford (Notts) district, whilst there 
are numbers tracing from that blood which went into Yorkshire, Lin- 
colnshire, and the Lake district, where the yellow roan and red were 
looked upon as the pure breed, the dark red being held in no favor.* 

"Although the average of the Barmpton sale, 1818, was under that 
of Ketton, i8io,f there is every reason to believe that it was a better 
sale. In 18 10 things were at war price and everything high, whilst 
in 1 Si 8 there was peace, and a general depression upon agriculture. 
The Alloy blood, too, in the Ketton stock tended to promote compe- 
tition for the purer strains at Barmpton. The bulls are said by Mr. 
Wetherell to have been the finest lot he ever saw at one sale. They 
doubled the average of the cows, and, taking the highest priced 
family at Ketton against the highest priced one at Barmpton, we have 
the following result in favor of the Barmpton stock : At Ketton, the 
Phcenix tribe, sixteen (including Comet 1000 guineas) averaged 
^221 3s.; at Barmpton, the Red Rose tribe, eleven (including Lan- 
caster 621 guineas) averaged ,£269 3s. 6d. ; and the thirteen favorite 
Wildairs averaged ^142 17s. 6d. 



* The strong partiality to a deep red color in Short-horns, which now prevails among a large 
majority of the American breeders, and which we think a mistaken partiality, had then no exist- 
ence among the English breeders. — L. F. A. 

+ Charles Colling's sale. — L. F. A. 



92 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

" Mr. Robert Colling always opposed his brother using [the Alloy] 
Grandson of Bolingbroke (280), and told Mr. Wiley that he did not 
consider his brother's herd nor his own better than other good herds, 
except the Phoenix tribe. In 1815 he stated that 'whatever I know 
of the art of breeding cattle I owe to the late Mr. George Culley.'* 
He [Robert Colling] was a stately, reserved man, the opposite to his 
brother Charles, kind in his manner and straightforward in all his 
dealings, keeping a good house and high company, and was liked by 
all who knew him. Robert was one of the earliest disciples and 
most intimate friends of the great Bakewell, and there is little doubt 
that Bakewell's great principle of in-and-in breeding was carried out 
most successfully by the Collings. Father to daughter and mother to 
son, were the principal direct alliances, and the system was continued 
so long as robustness and form were upheld." f 

Comparing the two herds of Robert and Charles, somewhat differ- 
ent opinions were entertained by their contemporaries of the supe- 
riority of one over the other. Both of them bred animals of marked 
excellence and fame in their own time, and that excellence and fame 
have been perpetuated through their blood down to the present day. 
Robert, in his personal character, was more quiet and reticent ; 
Charles, the more active, self-confident, and prominent before the 
public. Robert was equally sound in judgment, dabbling in no ex- 
periments, while Charles was more or less versatile in both opinion 
and practice. In a striking and no doubt accurate portrait of the 
two brothers in our possession, that of Robert is remarkably good- 
looking and portly, the features of the face expressive of an honest, 
upright man. That of Charles, although still portly in look, is less 
handsome than his brother; the face has not an equal frankness, 
and a little cunning, withal, seems lurking in the expression. 

* Culley was an advocate of Bakewell's system of breeding. — L. F. A. 

t We have no account that the " robustness and form " ever died out while the in-and-in breed- 
ing stock remained in the hands of the Collings. — L. F. A. 



THE COLLIXGS IMPROVEMENT. 93 



Did the Collings Improve the Quality of the Short-horns 
above their existing condition when they commenced 
Breeding ? Were the Collings' Herds Superior to those 
of their Contemporary Breeders at the times of their 
Final Sales? 

After discussing at such length as we have already done the prac- 
tice in breeding by the Collings, it may seem superfluous to add 
another word. We have seen that they were men of sagacity and 
enterprise; that they found, in the outset of their breeding life, the 
Short-horns a local, although ancient breed, existing in but a few 
counties of the north-eastern quarter of England ; that although 
these cattle possessed admirable qualities in themselves, and of great 
value, through the crosses of their blood, as instruments to improve 
the general herds then existing in other sections of the Short-horn 
region, they were still little known beyond their own immediate local- 
ities. In view of these facts, when establishing their own herds they 
selected the best animals within their reach, bred them with success, 
and determined to make them known, and give them a currency 
throughout those parts of the kingdom where they hitherto had been, 
and measurably were still strangers. In this they succeeded. Not 
only did they so succeed, but by adopting a course of breeding at 
that time, and in their own immediate section, almost if not alto- 
gether unpracticed, they reared superior cattle to many of the herds 
around them, and drew public attention conspicuously to their own 
herds and to their modes of breeding. 

It is possible that some of their contemporaries may have charged 
them with a species of pretension in their practice, but as their course 
of breeding was open and well known to those around thern, and 
they relied on public favor to sustain their efforts by purchases of 
their stock, it is to be presumed their persistence in the course which 
they had adopted was on the conviction that it was the correct one, 
leading to the largest success, not only in a pecuniary result, but in 
the improvement of their stock to the highest perfection of their day. 
Such, it appears, was the conclusion of those who closely studied 
their practice, and to the Collings should be awarded the credit of 
success. 

Not but that there were other breeders — unnamed, or but slightly 
alluded to in these pages — who, by a different course of breeding, 
had produced animals equally good as those of the Collings', but by 



94 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

their less active enterprise they failed to achieve that notoriety and 
high position which the Collings attained and held until they retired 
from the pursuit. The blood of their stocks, from their frequent bull 
sales and lettings became widely disseminated through other herds, 
far and near. Many of their cows were distributed by sales into 
neighboring as well as distant herds, and the agricultural public at 
large were benefited, so far as it chose to be, by their labors. 

One thing is certain, more good Short-horns for eighty years past, 
trace their pedigrees into the blood of the Colling bulls, through the 
Herd Books, than into the bulls of any twenty other English breed- 
ers put together, which may be deemed circumstantial if not positive 
testimony of the successful results of their breeding. "All," to be 
sure, "is not gold that glitters," as we have seen too much of 
assumption in our own day to believe that all men are benefactors 
who receive the laudations of the public for acts in which, were the 
truth wholly known, other less pretentious parties would have the 
credit ; yet it is but justice that we record a testimonial of his old 
friends and neighbors, awarded to Charles on his retirement from 
breeding, soon after the public sale of his stock. It was the offering 
of a valuable piece of plate with the following inscription: 

PRESENTED TO 

MR. CHARLES COLLING, 

THE GREAT IMPROVER OF THE SHORT-HORNED BREED OF CATTLE, 

BY THE BREEDERS 

{Upwards of fifty) , 

WHOSE NAMES ARE ANNEXED, 

AS A TOKEN OF GRATITUDE DUE FOR THE BENEFIT THEY HAVE DERIVED FROM HIS JUDGMENT, 

AND ALSO AS A TESTIMONY OF THEIR ESTEEM FOR HIM AS A MAN. 

1810. 

The address and adroitness of Charles may possibly have had 
something to do with this exclusive testimonial, to a share in which 
we think his brother Robert was equally entitled. Uncharitable 
minds might liken it to the defrauding of Esau of his birthright by 
his more cunning brother Jacob, but as the more generous Robert 
did not complain, we may suppose the offering to be an honest one, 
so far as Charles was concerned. In summing up the labors of the 
brothers Colling, from all the evidence we have been enabled to 
glean — not forgetting the meritorious efforts of many of their con- 
temporary breeders — they may be said, Robert equally with Charles, 
to have improved the many admirable qualities of the Short-horns, 
and in such result merited the appellation of benefactors. 



THE BOOTH SHORT-HORNS. 95 



CHAPTER IV. 

The Booth Family and their Short-horns. 

In chronological order, next to the Collings, among the prominent 
earlier breeders come the Booths. As our account must of necessity 
be an intermixture of their several names in the notices of their herds, 
an explanation of their personalities will, as we proceed, become 
necessary. 

Thomas Booth, the elder and first of the family connected with 
Short-horn breeding, was contemporary with the Collings. His 
grandson, the present Thomas C. Booth, related to the late Richard 
L. Allen, of New York, who met him at the great Yorkshire Agricul- 
tural Show, in August, 1869, that "his grandfather began breeding 
Short-horns in 1777, at or near Studley Park, and was a neighbor 
and rival of Robert and Charles Colling." Yet we have no particular 
account of the earlier animals of his breeding, or what was their 
particular character. We find no record of animals of their herd 
earlier than such as are recorded in Vol. 1, E. H. B., where all their 
animals trace their genealogy into bulls bred by the Collings, from 
which it is presumed that they derived their stock on the sires' side 
chiefly, or altogether, from them some years after they began breed- 
ing ; so that the elder Booth in the production of the stock which 
gave him his chief celebrity bred them from the Colling bulls. The 
legitimate foundation of his herds may be dated at Killerby, in York- 
shire, about the year 1790. Previous to this he had become the 
owner of the estates of Killerby and Warlaby, not far apart, and at 
no great distance from Darlington, and within easy access to the 
places then occupied by the brothers Colling. Thomas Booth had 
two sons, Richard and John, both of whom afterwards became Short- 
horn breeders, conjointly with, and succeeding their father. Of the 
brothers, Richard was probably the most skillful, and being through 
life a bachelor, with no family cares to divert his attention, his sym- 
pathies and affections were chiefly absorbed in the propagation and 



96 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

improvement of his stock ; John was also a good Short-horn breeder. 
Like the brothers Colling, they interchanged, and bred mainly from 
the same sources of blood. 

Passing from the stage, a valuable portion of the herds of the 
brothers fell into possession of the present Thomas C. Booth, of 
Warlaby, son of John, and nephew to Richard. He is the Booth of 
the present day, although his brother John and his son J. C. Booth, 
of Killerby, are also Short-horn breeders to some extent, and chiefly 
in the stocks of the family tribe. 

With these preliminaries, necessary to the future narration of their 
herds, we are fortunately favored with "The History of the Rise and 
Progress of the Killerby, Studley, and Warlaby herds of Short-horns, 
by William Carr," published in London in 1867. This work, although 
highly laudatory, and written apparently with a view of giving a 
special prominence to the "Booth blood," is valuable in the many 
facts it contains touching the career of the earlier Booths, and their 
course of breeding, as also for its many hints and suggestions profita- 
ble to breeders of the present day, and the information it conveys of 
the dissemination of their animals. The book itself is scholarly in 
style, graphic in narration, and if a poetic or imaginative tint is now 
and then detected in its pages, they may be imputed only to the 
enthusiasm of the author, and not to a disposition to mislead the 
reader into a false estimate of the noble animals he so partially exalts. 

We can do no better, perhaps, than to quote literally from the 
work in question, with occasional explanatory notes of our own, in 
order to give the reader a true history, so far as may be necessary for 
our purpose, of the Booth Short-horns : 

" Mr. Thomas Booth was no servile imitator. He was a contem- 
porary of the Collings, and began his career quite independently of 
them, as an improver of the cattle of the same district, and he com- 
menced it nearly at the same time. Mr. Booth had been a breeder 
of Short-horns many years when the celebrated Durham Ox, bred by 
Mr. Charles Colling, was first exhibited throughout the kingdom, and 
drew universal attention to the Short-horns. He afterwards did what 
wisdom dictated, availed himself of the Collings' best blood, and 
incorporated it with his own ; while his sons and grandsons at Killerby, 
at Studley, and at Warlaby, have continued the same herd down to 
the present time, and given it a world-wide fame. 

" Previously to the year 1790 Mr. Thomas Booth, who was then the 
owner of the Warlaby and Killerby estates, and farmed them both, 
commenced at Killerby the breeding of Short-horns. * * * He 



THE BOOTH HERDS. g 1 / 

obtained his rudimentary stock from some of the best specimens of 
these Teeswater Short-horns. He appears to have proceeded on the 
principle that whilst the general similitude and mingled qualities of 
both parents descend to the offspring, the external conformation — 
subject, of course, to some modification by the other parent — is 
mainly imparted by the male, and the vital and nutritive organs by 
the female. Acting on this hypothesis, he was careful to select such 
well-framed cows only as evinced, by an ample capacity of chest, a 
robust constitution and a predisposition to fatten, and such moderate 
sized males as possessed in the highest degree then attainable the 
particular external points and proportions he deemed desirable to 
impress upon his herd. A dairy farmer under Lord Harewood, a 
Mr. Broader,* of Fairholme, in the parish of Ainderby, appears to 
have possessed some cows having the qualifications required. Tradi- 
tion speaks of them as unusually fine cattle for that period; good 
dairy cows, and great grazers when dry; somewhat incompact in 
frame, and steerish in appearance, f but of very robust constitution. 
Previously to the year 1790, Mr. Thomas Booth had bought some 
calves from these cows. Strawberry Fairholme, Hazel (2. e. flecked 
roan) Fairholme, and Eight-and-twenty-shilling Fairholme, purchased 
from Mr. Broader's farm, have the honor of being the ancestresses of 
several illustrious families of Short-horns. 

" I have said that Mr. Thomas Booth selected moderate-sized males. 
His observant eye had recognized, as indispensable to any improve- 
ment in the symmetry of these Teeswater animals, the necessity of 
reducing in size and stature their large, loosely-knit frames. With 
this view he decided on selecting his bulls from the stock of his 
contemporaries, Messrs. Robert and Charles Colling, who had them- 
selves, to some extent, effected this reduction of size,J and improve- 
ment of form and fattening capacity in their stock, chiefly through 
the use of Hubback, a small, short-legged bull. Twin Brother to 
Ben (660), bred by the Collings, and Booth's Son of Twin Brother to 
Ben (S8), were the first bulls used by Mr. Thomas Booth to these 
Fairholme heifers. These bulls had the short legs, the long and level 
hind quarters, the firm backs and good twists, to which Mr. Thomas 

* Mr. Broader's cattle do not appear among the early records of the English Herd Book. He 
probably kept nothing but notes of his herd, if he kept pedigrees at all. — L. F. A. 

t That " steerish " appearance, in the heads, particularly, still appertains to many of the pttrely 
bred Booth cows of the present day. — L. F. A. 

* It might be a reduction in size, but it was an actual increase of weight which the Collings 
effected by breeding smaller boned, more compact and massive animals, than their progenitors. — 
L. F. A. 

7 



98 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

Booth attached so much importance, and their offspring amply testi- 
fied to his discrimination. It is recorded that one cow by the former, 
and her daughter by the latter bull, produced six calves in one year, 
the dam having twice produced twins, and the daughter once. Four 
of these calves were heifers. Some of the offspring were very supe- 
rior cows. In proof of the excellent foundation they afforded for the 
formation of a herd, it is affirmed on high authority that one of the 
Twin Brother to Ben cows produced, to Son of Twin Brother to Ben, 
a cow quite equal to Faith, by Raspberry, the dam of the famous 
Hope. Many of the cows were deep milkers, but running dry sooner 
than was then usual, when they gained flesh very rapidly. The late 
Mr. Ewbank, of Sober Hill, questioning the milking capacity of 
some of them in this condition, Mr. Thomas Booth pointed to their 
broad backs, and exclaimed, ' Look there ! that is worth a few pints 
of milk ! ' These cows were further open to Mr. Ewbanks criticism 
as having raw noses, as he contemptuously termed that feature when 
flesh-colored ; alleging that in his early days the farm stock was nearly 
all Mack-nosed, and that he never knew a raw-nosed cow that was not 
delicate — a prejudice which has long since passed away. 

" Having thus judiciously selected the best animals procurable of 
both sexes, Mr. T. Booth was careful to pair such, and such only, of 
the produce of these unions as presented in a satisfactory degree the 
desired characteristics, with animals possessing them in equal or 
greater measure, and unsparingly to reject — especially from his male 
stock — all such as were not up to the required standard. Having by 
these means succeeded in developing and establishing in his herd a 
definite and uniform character, he sought to ensure its perpetuation 
by breeding from rather close affinities, as in his opinion the only 
security for the unfailing transmission, and transmission in an increased 
ratio, of these acquired distinctions to the offspring. In tracing the 
pedigrees of these herds, it will be seen that from the earliest period 
the same system of breeding from close relations which was pursued 
by the Collings was followed by the Booths. An examination of the 
pedigree of Lady Maynard {alias the cow Favorite) will show to 
what a length the system was carried by the earlier breeders, and how 
closely the first families of the Colling strain were allied to the Booth 
tribes. Further proof of this may be found in the pedigrees of the 
earliest bulls used by Mr. Thomas Booth, namely, Twin Brother to 
Ben (660), Suworrow (636), Albion (14), Pilot (496), and Marshal 
Beresford (415). Take, for example, the three last named. Albion — 
purchased at Mr. Charles Colling's sale in 18x0, by Mr. T. Booth, Sr., 



THE BOOTH HERDS. 99 

for 60 guineas, when a calf — was by a bull which was both a son and 
grandson of Favorite (252); his dam was by a son of Favorite, and 
his granddam by a bull who was not only a son of Favorite, but also 
of Favorite's half-sister. Pilot, bred by Mr. Robert Colling, was by 
Major (398) or Wellington (680). Major was by a son and grandson 
of Favorite, his dam by a son of Favorite, his granddam by Favorite, 
and his great granddam by Favorite. Wellington was by a son and 
grandson of Favorite, and his dam was by Favorite. Marshal Beres- 
ford was by a son and grandson of Favorite, his dam by a grandson 
of Favorite, and his granddam by Favorite. Marshal Beresford came 
into the herd in an exchange for some cows with Major Bower, Mr. 
Thomas Booth's brother-in-law, a Short-horn breeder, then living at 
Welham. On returning home one day, Mr. R. Booth found, to his great 
annoyance, that his father had re-sold the Marshal to Major Bower. 
He thought that if either had been parted with it should have been 
Albion. It proved fortunate, however, for the Booth herd that Albion 
was retained ; for though not so stylish as the Marshal in appearance, 
he proved far superior to him as a sire. Albion is said to have done 
more good in the herd than any other of the earlier bulls, notwith- 
standing that he had, through Washington (674), one-sixty-fourth 
part of the Alloy, which was the term of reproach cast upon Lady, 
by Grandson of Bolingbroke, and her descendants in the early days 
of Short-horn breeding.* The offspring of Albion were, in general, 
very round, compact, and near the ground. 

" I must here, however, revert to the Fairholme calves. A slight 
survey of the tribes which have sprung from these early mothers of 
the herd may not be without interest to some of my readers. From 
them proceeded the Fairholme or Blossom tribe, the old Red Rose 
tribe, and the Ariadne or Bright Eyes tribe. 

" Of the Fairholme or Blossom tribe, one branch terminated in the 
bull Easby (232). Another, which Mr. R. Booth took with him to 
Studley, produced Moss Rose, by Suworrow, Madame, by Marshal 
Beresford, Fair Maid, by Pilot, Miss Foote, by Agamemnon (9), and 
Young Sir Alexander (513). A third division, which, in the cow 
Eve passed into the hands of Major Bower, has representatives in 
the herd of Lord Feversham — Skyrocket, the first prize bull at the 
Royal show at Leeds in 1861, being one of them. Of a fourth 
branch — the descendants of Beauty by Albion — one portion remained 
in the hands of Mr. John Booth, and produced Modish, sold to Mr. 



* See page 71 ante, in notice of Charles Ceiling's breeding. — L. F. A. 



100 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

R. Holmes (who bred from her Belzoni (783); the other passed into 
the hands of Sir Charles Knightly, who had at one time several 
representatives of it. From a fifth branch, retained by Mr. Thomas 
Booth, sprang Twin Cow, by Albion, her son Navigator (1260), whose 
spirited portrait adorns the dining-room at Warlaby, and a long array 
of prize animals, amongst which may be mentioned Bloom, Plum 
Blossom, Nectarine Blossom, Venus Victrix, Baron Warlaby, and 
Windsor. 

" The old Red Rose * tribe is extinct, except in the progeny of 
Julius Caesar (1143) and Belshazzar (1703). 

"From the Bright Eyes tribe, in the possession of R. Booth, at 
Studley, came Ariadne, the prize cow Anna, by Pilot, and many other 
fine animals dispersed at the Studley sale. 

" Besides these Fairholme tribes, there was the Halnaby or Straw- 
berry tribe, which also dates from this period. The first of them 
was of that yellow red and white hue, which, though out of favor at 
the present day, was then the prevailing color of the Short-horn, f She 
was bought in Darlington market, and one of the earliest recollec- 
tions of Mr. R. Booth was of that cow coming home. The type of 
old Halnaby of 1797, who is said to have been a very finely made 
cow, has often been reproduced in her descendants in the herd. Mr. 
Thomas Booth considered this as one of his finest families, quite 
equal to the Blossom and the Ariadne tribes. Young Albion (15) is 
the first bull of note in the Halnaby family. He was much used in 
the herd, and was one of the first that was let out on hire. He went 
to Mr. Scroope's, of Danby Hall, near Middleham, who had a fine, 
large, robust herd of cattle, related, through some of the bulls used, 
to the Colling blood. In 181 2, the Squire of Danby challenged Mr. 
Thomas Booth to show, ' for rump and dozen ' (the usual stakes at 
that day being rump stakes and a dozen of wine), the best lot of 
heifers he had, against the same number of his own, the match to be 
decided at Bedale. Although a good lot, the Danby had to give 
place to the Killerby and Warlaby contingent. Of the Halnaby 
tribe came also the bull Rockingham (2551), and Priam (2452), the 
latter, sire of Necklace and Bracelet. The only female representa- 
tives of the family are in the hands of the present Mr. Booth, of 
Warlaby. From Strawberry 3d came the Bianca and Bride Elect 
branch ; whilst the famous cow White Strawberry, the dam of Leon- 
ard (4210), was the ancestress of Monk, Medora, Red Rose, and 

* Not the Red Rose tribe of Robert Colling.— L. F. A. 

t Roans, and whites, are still the prevailing colors of the Booth Short-horns. — L. F. A. 



THE BOOTH HERDS. IOI 

her daughters, the queenly quartette. Young Matchem (4422) is 
descended from White Rose, own sister of Young Albion, and there- 
fore, on the dam's side, of the Halnaby family, and the same branch 
of it gives the dam, Young Rachel, of Mr. Ambler's Grand Turk. 

"The Bracelet tribe sprung from a cow by Suworrow, of whose 
origin there is no record. She was the ancestress of a very superior 
cow, calved in 1S12, Countess, by Albion (14), the Alloy bull; also 
of Toy, and her twin daughters Necklace and Bracelet, and of Col. 
Towneley's Pearly, and Mr. Torr's Young Bracelet tribe. 

" The early representatives of the above mentioned tribes formed 
the herd of Mr. Thomas Booth down to the year 1S14, when (his 
son) Mr. Richard Booth, taking the Studley farm, near Ripon, left 
Killerby. Mr. Thomas Booth was at that time the most enterprising 
and skillful improver of cattle in his district, if not of his day.* It 
is said there were some cows in Mr. Thomas Booth's herd of that 
period as good as any herd of the present time can "boast ; though, 
being bred for use rather than show, the generality of them were 
wanting in the refinement of the modern Short-horn. At that period 
there were, happily, no shows to demand the sacrifice of the best 
cattle in the kingdom, or the few that were held could be reached by 
the majority of cattle attending them only by such long journeys on 
foot as would be impracticable by animals in such a state of obesity 
as is now a sine qua no?i with the judicial triumvirate. High feeding 
at that time meant no more than good pasture for cows early dried of 
their milk ; and the term ' training ' was never heard except in rela- 
tion to horses. The first breeder who introduced the system, which 
has since run into such ruinous excess, of house-feeding cows and 
heifers in summer on artificial food, was Mr. Crofton ; and in that 
year he, of course, took all before him in the show yards. The gen- 
eral treatment of the females of a herd at that day was a simple hay 
diet during the winter months. They were put early to breeding, 
and generally calved at two years old. A few were taken from the 
lot to milk. The remainder suckled their calves until winter. They 
were then taken up, dried, and fed off by the time they were three 
years old ; the same course being pursued, in their turn, with their 
progeny. 

" Mr. Thomas Booth was as liberal as his successors in allowing 
the free use of his bulls to his poor neighbors ; and, like most public 
benefactors, was occasionally imposed upon. A ludicrous instance 

* Rather too laudatory, we think. — L. F. A. 



102 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

of this is still remembered. An old fellow at Ainderby, not contented 
with the bull set apart for this purpose, and being anxious to have a 
calf by another, that Mr. Booth especially prized and kept exclu- 
sively for his own herd, took his cow into the lane adjoining the field 
where the prohibited animal was grazing. The bull broke through 
the fence ; and — the old Yorkshireman's object was achieved. The 
latter, knowing how indignant Mr. Booth would be, thought it safest 
to act on the principle of taking the bull by the horns ; and, assum- 
ing an injured air, at once repaired to him, exclaiming, ' O maister, 
maister ! sic an a thing has happened ! Your gurt ugly beast has 
broken through t 'hedge, and I doubt he'll hae gitten my cow wi' cauf. 
It's a sad bad job ; for I were boun' to feed her off.' 

" Mr. Richard Booth's removal to Studley forms a new era in the 
history of these herds. From 1814 down to its dispersion in 1834, 
the Studley colony took precedence of the parent stock. We may 
now, therefore, before proceeding with the history of the Killerby 
Herd, turn our attention to that of Studley. 

The Studley Herd. 

" Mr. Richard Booth inherited with his father's name his full share 
of his father's skill as a breeder, with an equal fondness for the pur- 
suit ; and his new farm, which he held under the wealthy and 
well-known Mrs. Lawrence,* was speedily stocked with superior Short- 
horns. He began with his father's cattle, and carried on to even 
greater perfection his father's work. Among the first importations 
which were made from Killerby to Studley, when Mr. Richard Booth 
went there in 1814, the following may be mentioned: He purchased 
from his father Bright Eyes, by Lame bull (359), and her daughters 
Ariadne, then a two-year-old, and Agnes, a yearling, both by Albion. 
Ariadne was own sister to Agamemnon, the grandsire of Isabella, by 
Pilot. She was the dam of the famous Anna, by Pilot (496), who 
won numerous prizes at the best shows of the day; and who, in 1824, 
performed the feat of walking from Studley to Manchester, taking 
the first prize there, walking back, and producing within a fortnight 
Young Anna. Anna is said, by those who well remember her, to 
have borne a very strong resemblance in color and character to Queen 
of the Ocean. She was the dam of Adelaide, who, through her sire 
Albert, was also granddaughter of Isabella. Adelaide was the highest 

* Previously alluded to in a letter to the writer, by R. L. Allen.— L. F. A. 



THE STUD LEY HERD. I03 

priced female sold at Mr. R. Booth's Studley sale in 1834, and was 
the granddam of Mr. Storer's cow Princess Julia. From Anna, more 
remotely through her daughter, Young Anna, are descended two of 
Mr. Torr's families ; and from Agnes, daughter of Bright Eyes, came 
Mr. Fawkes' Verbena and her descendants. Agamemnon, the own 
brother of Ariadne, was a bull of extraordinary substance, with good 
hind quarters, heavy flanks, deep twist, and well covered hips. He 
was eventually sold, with two heifers, to Mr. White, of Woodlands, 
near Dublin. Even in these early days Mr. Booth had bulls out on 
hire. Alonzo (27), a son of, Ariadne, by Rockingham (559), was let 
to Mr. Hutton, of Marske, who, to promote the improvement of the 
breed of cattle in his district, had at that time yearly shows on his 
estate. Protector (1347), another bull of the Bright Eyes family, was 
hired by Mr. Powlett, of Bolton Hall. He was a large, red bull, and 
a capital sire. 

" In the first year of his residence at Studley, Mr. R. Booth bought 
in Darlington market* the first of what was afterwards known as the 
Isabella tribe. She was a roan cow, by Mr. Burrell's bull of Burdon 
(1768), and, for a market cow, had a remarkably ample development 
of the fore quarters. She was put to Agamemnon. The offspring 
was 'White Cow,' which, crossed by Pilot, produced the matchless 
Isabella, so long remembered in show-field annals, and to this day 
quoted as a perfect specimen of her race. Pedestrians crossing the 
fields to the ruins of Fountains Abbey might generally see her and 
Anna, perhaps the two best cows of their day, with a blooming bevy 
of fair heifers, attended by Young Albion (15); and many a traveler 
lingered on his way to admire their buxom forms, picturing to himself 
perhaps how the monks of the old abbey would have gloried in such 
beeves." 

It was from this estate that the name of "Studley bull" was given 
to the noble animal, calved in 1737, through whose loins a larger 
number of the noted older Short-horns trace their lineage than to any 
other. His Herd Book pedigree only states that he was "red and 
white, bred by Mr. Sharter, of Chilton." In a note to that pedigree, 

* It is a pregnant fact, as the fashion of the day then was, before a Herd Book, recording the 
pedigrees of Short-horns was established, or perhaps even thought of, and even to a much later 
time, that the breeders and farmers of the Short-horn counties sent many of their valuable sur- 
plus animals to the local fairs for sale. They had no written pedigrees, yet their breeders had 
access to and used in their herds the pure bred bulls of leading breeders for some cattle genera- 
tions back. They were Short-horns, to all intents and purposes, and probably as pure in blood 
as any to be found. Not only the Booths, but other discriminating breeders purchased them, and 
in their produce many noted animals have risen to well-merited distinction. — L. F. A. 



104 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

written by the late Mr. Thomas Bates, he remarks that "he was of 
the Barningham breed, which came from Studley, where they were 
bred for many generations." So that the ancient domain of Studley, 
as with Alnwick Castle, "home of the Percy's high-born race " of men, 
was equally a home of the high-born race of Short-horn cattle. 

" Isabella and her descendants brought the massive yet exquisitely 
moulded fore quarters into the herd, and also that straight under-line 
of the belly, for which the Warlaby animals are remarkable. That 
such a cow should have had but three crosses of blood is striking 
evidence of the impressive efficacy of these early bulls, and confirms 
Mr. R. Booth's opinion that four crosses of really first-rate bulls of 
sterling blood upon a good market cow, of the ordinary Short-horn breed, 
should suffice for the production of an animal with all the character- 
istics of the high-caste Short-horn."* 

" ' White Cow,' by Agamemnon, produced, besides the famous Isa- 
bella, 'Own Sister to Isabella,' and Lady Sarah, and was then sold to 
Mr. Paley, of Gledhow. Her dam, the Darlington cow, had previ- 
ously been disposed of to the master of a boarding-school at Ripon, 
one of whose pupils, Mr. Bruere, of Braithwaite Hall — a highly 
esteemed friend of the late Mr. Booth's — well remembers the brim- 
ming pails of milk she gave. ' Own Sister to Isabella ' was the dam 
of Blossom, by Meranon (2295) (a son of Julius Caesar and Straw- 
berry, by Pilot), and Blossom was the dam of Medora, by Ambo 
(1636), one of the neatest cows Mr. Booth ever bred. Medora was 
sold to Mr. Fawkes, in whose hands she was the progenitress of his 
Gulnare, Haidee, Zuleika, and others. Mr. Fawkes' Lord Marquis, 
the first prize three-year-old bull at the Royal Show at Lewes, in 
1852, and the Yorkshire Show at Sheffield, in the same year, was also 
a descendant of Medora's. 

"'A gentleman,' says the writer of 'Short-horn Intelligence,' 'who 
has been intimately conversant with the herds of Great Britain for at 
least a quarter of a century, declares that one of the most interesting 
sights he ever saw at an agricultural exhibition was on the show 
ground at Otley, some years ago, when, after the judging, the famous 
Booth cow Medora, by Ambo, was led round the ring, followed by her 
six daughters, all of them, as well as the mother, decorated with prize 
iavors. The daughters were Gulnare, Haidee, and Zuleika (by Nor- 
folk) (2377); Victoria, and Fair Maid of Athens (by Sir Thomas 

* The American breeder must understand that " the ordinary Short-horn irtvrf," named above, 
were true Short-horns, but without. Herd Book pedigrees, and not the common cattle of the coun- 
try, like ours. — L. F. A. 



THE STUD LEY HERD. 105 

Fairfax) (5196) ; and a heifer named Myrrha, not in the Herd Book, 
under that name at least, by Rockingham (2550).' 

" Blossom was bought by the Earl of Lonsdale, at the Studley sale 
in 1834, and, after breeding four calves, was slaughtered in 1840. 
Own Sister to Isabella, also had Imogen, by Argus (750), which was 
sold at the Studley sale to the Earl of Carlisle, and became the dam 
of Isabel, by Belshazzar (1703). This Belshazzar (1703),* who was 
contemporary with Mr. Booth's Belshazzar of the old Red Rose 
tribe, was from Lady Sarah, the third sister of Isabella, by Pilot. 
Lady Sarah became the property of the Earl of Carlisle, and pro- 
duced at Castle Howard three bulls and four heifers, one of which 
was the dam of Lord Stanley (4269), purchased by Messrs. Booth and 
Maynard. 

" Isabella, by Pilot, now the best known to fame of the three 
sisters, produced, at Studley, Isaac (1129), by Young Albion (15), 
Albert (727) by the same bull, Isabella, sold to Mr. Bolden, Young 
Isabella to Mr. Paley, and Belinda to the Earl of Carlisle, and four 
others ; and on the sale of the Studley herd she alone was retained, 
and transferred to Warlaby, where she gave birth, in her eighteenth 
year, to Isabella Matchem, afterwards the dam, as will be seen, of a 
numerous progeny. The demand for bulls was then only commenc- 
ing. Isaac had been let for a year to Miss Strickland, of Apperley 
Court, and on his return, Mr. Booth not requiring him, he was unfor- 
tunately fed to make room for younger ones, before his eminent merits 
as a sire had been discovered. The Isabellas had all great capacity for 
rapidly acquiring ripe condition on pasture. As an illustration of the 
fallaciousness of the usual mode of judging cattle by the softness of 
their flesh, it may be worthy of mention that at one of the Yorkshire 
agricultural meetings held at Northallerton, a grass-fed heifer, a 
daughter of Isabella, by Ambo, was shown, and rejected as being 
too hard-fleshed. Not breeding, she was slaughtered at York for 
Christmas beef. Her two successful rivals also failing to breed were 
slaughtered, and the palm for the best carcass of beef was awarded 
to Mr. Booth's heifer over her Northallerton rivals. Nor is this case 
without many a parallel in the history of Royal Shows. Numerous 
as have been the prizes which the Booth cattle have received, their 
number would have been greatly increased if judges had always care- 
fully distinguished between flesh and fat. When their decisions have 

* This must be a mistake of Mr. Carr's. The English Herd Book, Vol. 3, records Belshazzar 
(1704) as the Son of Lady Sarah. Mr. Booth bred (1703), and the Earl of Carlisle bred (1704). — 
L. F. A. 



106 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

been on this ground — as they often have been — adverse to the Booth 
cattle, many an experienced butcher has proclaimed a very different 
opinion ; and could the appeal ad crumenam have been adopted by 
an immediate sale of the rival animals to the shambles, how useless 
would it have been in most instances to contest the supremacy of 
the Booths ! 

"Another cow which Mr. Booth took with him to Studley was 
Madame, by Marshal Beresford, also of the Fairholme Blossom tribe. 
From her came Fancy and Fair Maid, both by Agamemnon. The 
former was the dam of Fatima, a very neat, middle-sized cow, which, 
put to Mr. Maynard's Sir Alexander (591), produced the famous bull 
Young Sir Alexander (5139). This bull was the sire of Strawberry, 
whose daughter, White Strawberry, by Rockingham (559), held, per- 
haps, equal rank in Mr. Booth's estimation with Anna, Isabella, and 
her own contemporary rivals, Necklace and Bracelet. Fair Maid, 
the other daughter of Madame, by Marshal Beresford, was the dam 
of Miss Foote, whose descendants were very numerous, and were all 
disposed of at, or previously to, the Studley sale. They united in a 
remarkable degree the two properties of good milking and rapid 
fattening. Fair Maid herself was sold to Mr. Ellison, of Sizergh, 
where she bred many calves, and proved herself an excellent dairy 
cow. Miss Foote was sold to Captain Shawe, and Fair Helen, her 
daughter, who was the dam of the noted bull Cossack (1880), to Sir 
Charles Tempest, with whom she bred four heifers. I remember, in 
1853, a stray waif of this famous tribe in the hands of an inn-keeper, 
at Clapham, in Yorkshire. It was, in fact, the broad, level back, and 
symmetrical proportions of this cow, that induced me to purchase my 
first Short-horn, her bull calf. The cow was a granddaughter of 
Miss Foote, being a daughter of Lady Helen, then the property of 
Mr. Foster, of Clapham. She was sacrificed whilst still in her prime, 
her owner being tempted by the offer of a high price for her from a 
butcher. 

" Some mention of the bulls bred and used by Mr. Booth during 
his residence at Studley seems here to be required. 

" One of the first bulls of superior mark bred by Mr. Richard 
Booth, after his removal to Studley, was Julius Caesar (1143), a bull 
of very symmetrical proportions, which he had the merit of impress- 
ing in a surprising degree upon his offspring. No matter how 
dissimilar and opposite in form and breed the cows to which he was 
put might be, the produce all bore the unmistakable stamp of their 
sire. The offspring, by him, of the shabbiest lane-side cow, had, it 



THE STUDLEY HERD. 107 

is said, all the character of the pure-bred Short-horn. It may be 
worth while to inquire how far the remarkable property which distin- 
guished this bull may be traced to the preponderating influence of 
any particular progenitor or progenitors in his pedigrees, an investi- 
gation of which, it may be here sufficient to say, will show him to be 
descended half a dozen times, and some of them very nearly, from 
Twin Brother to Ben. 

" This circumstance lends weight to the opinion of many experi- 
enced breeders, that, in general, the capability of a bull to transmit 
to his offspring his own peculiar mould and properties depends upon 
his having inherited them from a succession of ancestors endowed 
with similar characteristics. It is doubtless to the concentration of 
hereditary force thus derived that the extraordinary transmissive 
power of such bulls as Comet, Favorite and Julius Caesar, is to be 
attributed. At the same time it is a curious circumstance, and one 
that should not be forgotten — as often modifying to some extent the 
principle above enunciated — that amongst animals similarly bred there 
are some bulls, and some cows too, that possess an immeasurably greater 
transmissive influence than pertains to others. 

" Pilot (496), another of the bulls of this period, was bred by Mr. 
R. Colling, and purchased by Mr. T. Booth at the Barmpton sale in 
1S18, for 270 guineas. He was used in all the three herds, and there 
was no bull to which they were more largely indebted. The close 
in-and-in breeding of this animal has already been shown. He was 
let to Mr. Rennie for a short time ; but his stock at home proved so 
good, that he was recalled at the expiration of his first season. Pilot 
was a small, compact bull, somewhat undersized, but possessed of 
great thriving propensity. He was a capital sire, and may be appro- 
priately cited as a striking example of the preceding remarks. I am 
indebted for this account of Pilot to one who remembers him well — 
that old friend of the Booths, the much respected Nestor of the Short- 
horns, Mr. Wetherell, who, like his friend Mr. Wiley, of Brandsby, is 
still hale and strong, a living record of early Short-horn times, from 
whom younger men learn the lessons of the past.* Isaac, another 
bull of note, bred by Mr. Richard Booth, has already been referred 
to. Burley (1766) and Ambo (1636), both containing a large amount 
of the Favorite blood, were partially used in the herd during the last 
three years before the sale. 

" In the year 1834 Mr. Richard Booth, finding that some of his best 
pastures were required by their owner for other purposes, gave up the 

* Mr. Wetherell died in February, 1871.— L. F. A. 



108 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

farm at Studley, and selling off the whole of his herd, with the 
exception of Isabella, by Pilot, retired to Sharrow, near Ripon. 
After residing there for a year, which, from being bereft of his 
favorites, he used to describe as the least happy period of his life, 
Mr. R. Booth, in consequence of his father's death, succeeded to the 
estate and Short-horn herd of Warlaby. The sale of the Studley 
herd was a step which Mr. Booth always regretted, for many of the 
animals it contained were, in his opinion, every whit as good as any 
he afterwards bred. They were dispersed into many hands, and 
though Old Cuddy's* assertion, that they have 'a' swealed away,' is 
certainly too sweeping, it may be doubted whether, even in the hands 
of very celebrated breeders, like Mr. Fawkes and others, the descend- 
ants of these famous cattle have ever quite equaled their cousins at 
Warlaby. 

" It is now necessary to go back a quarter of a century to resume 
the history of 

The Killerby Herd. 

"We have seen that in the year 1814, Mr. Richard Booth took 
with him to Studley some of the animals then forming the Killerby 
herd. Mr. Thomas Booth shortly afterwards supplied the place of 
these with other cows, which became the foundresses of three famous 
tribes — the Farewell tribe, from which sprang Faith, Hope, and 
Charity ; the Broughton tribe, from whence came Bliss, Blithe, and 
Bonnet; and the Dairymaid, or Moss Rose tribe, from which are 
descended Vivandiere, Camp Follower, and Soldier's Bride. The 
first of the Farewell tribe came from Darlington ; the first of the 
Broughton tribe from a dairy farmer in a village of that name, who 
had some good cattle, but, pedigrees being slightly valued in those 
days by the tenant-farmer class, nothing further is known about them, f 
The first of the Dairymaid tribe came from an equally good stock in 
the village of Scorton. 

" In the year 1819, on the occasion of Mr. J. Booth's marriage, Mr. 
T. Booth removed to Warlaby, giving up to his son, Mr. J. Booth, 
the Killerby estate and a part of the Short-horn herd, and taking the 
remainder with him. A portion of the Fairholme or Blossom tribe, 
and of the Old Red Rose tribe, were removed to Warlaby, the 

* Mr. Booth's herdsman.— L. F. A. 

+ A fact like this may explain the want of pedigrees to the Kentucky importation of Short- 
horns to America in the year 1817, only three years later than 1814. — L. F. A. 



THE KILLERBY HERD. IO9 

remainder being left with Mr. John Booth. The Halnaby family- 
was also divided, but the famous Bracelet tribe was all left at Killerby. 
From this period down to the year 1835, when Mr. R. Booth suc- 
ceeded to his father's herd at Warlaby, there is comparatively little 
known of the two herds. The times were unpropitious for the Short- 
horn. The spirit of improvement which the example of the Collings 
had evoked only partially survived. There was a general depression 
in all agricultural produce, and consequently but little demand for 
animals, the purchase of which appeared at that time to partake so 
much of the nature of a speculation. Not yet did 

' Generous Britons venerate the plow,' 

or regard with respect bucolic occupations. A man gained more 
eclat by a display of science and judgment in going across country 
than in the breeding of cattle. In some districts, a gentleman almost 
lost caste by devoting himself to such ignoble pursuits, and was sar- 
castically dubbed, by his companions in the pink, 'cow-scratcher.'* 

" But though ' fallen on evil days,' the stock at Killerby was of 
high character, and was frequently resorted to by the few good breed- 
ers of that period for the purchase of animals. It is a house where 
all comers were, and still are, regaled with the welcome of the olden 
times. Killerby is one of the pleasantest of the pleasant homes of 
England. It is a substantial, square, manor-house, picturesquely 
situated on a gentle eminence to the south of the river Swale, and 
two miles from Catterick, the site of the once important Roman 
camp and city of Cataractonium. The house occupies the site of 
the ancient castle of Killerby, once a stronghold of great magnitude, 
founded in the reign of Edward the First by Sir Brian Fitzalan, Earl 
of Arundel. It is approached by a road winding through verdant 
pastures thrown together into the form of a park, adorned here and 
there with noble elm and walnut trees. The estate consists of about 
500 acres of arable and pasture land. The soil, which is very mixed — 
gravel, strong clay, marl, and peat being sometimes found in the same 
field — is more adapted for sheep than heavy cattle, though there are 
two or three excellent pastures. Several of the inferior grass fields 
have been plowed up of late, and heavy crops of oats and turnips 
grown in their place, which has allowed the number of sheep kept to 
be greatly increased. Although half-bred sheep are occasionally seen 

* It will be seen that there were ebbs and flows in the demand for Short-horns in those days, — 
most mistakenly for the interests of the stock breeding public,' — as there have been since. — ■ 
L. F. A. 



IIO HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

on the farm for summer grazing, the staple stock are pure Leicesters, 
for the wool of which Mr. J. B. Booth, the present owner, has gained 
several prizes at the Yorkshire shows. 

" The late Mr. John Booth, of Killerby, was known and beloved 
throughout the county as a strikingly genial example of the worthy 
and hospitable northern agriculturist, ever devoting himself to the 
service of his friends (and he had many) to the advancement of 
agricultural improvement. The humblest, equally with the most 
important, agricultural societies might always rely on his good offices, 
whether as patron or judge, in which latter capacity being confessedly 
unrivaled, he was in great request, and would most good naturedly 
consent to officiate, though his doing so involved the exclusion of 
his own cattle from competition. As might have been expected, 
from his fine and manly character, he was also a keen sportsman ; 
like Chaucer's squire, 

' Well could he sitte a horse and faire y-ride ;' 

and Yorkshire, that modern Thessaly of horsemen, knew no more 
thorough judge of hack or hunter. His skill in this respect still 
survives in his sons ; many a field and many a showyard testify that 
in this regard, as in others, Killerby has not degenerated from its 
ancient fame. He had, too, a natural taste for the fine arts, and 
when from illness he could not go far from home, he had his horses 
led out, and would sit on the lawn, or in the hall, to paint them. 
Here, too, his taste survives, and if I touch lightly on the subject it 
is because more delicate fingers now hold the brush, and I would 
not trespass unbidden upon the elegant recreations of Killerby's fair 
Mistress. 

"When, on the establishment of the national shows in 1839, the 
superiority of the Killerby Short-horns had been proved in contest 
with the best animals of the day, the herd attracted many visitors, 
and its inspection was as free to all classes as were the fruits of its 
owner's experience in breeding, which he was ever ready to commu- 
nicate to the neophyte. It may not be uninteresting to the present 
fair enthusiasts in Short-horn matters to learn, that in the absence of 
her husband, the late Mrs. Booth — a lady who will long be remem- 
bered in that neighborhood for her benevolent disposition and 
engaging manners — would herself most affably do the honors of the 
herd, leading the way to her especial favorites, and expatiating on 
their pedigrees, points, and perfections, sometimes with a dash of 
arch humor, and always with the grace and delicacy of the thorough- 




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THE KILLERBY HERD. Ill 

bred lady that she was. Mrs. Booth's sister, Miss Wright, had an 
equally keen appreciation of the merits of a good Short-horn, and 
would stop any one of kindred tastes, who happened to be passing 
through Cleasby, to have a chat on her favorite topic, or to lead them 
to the Garth (since known by his name), where in the fullness of his 
days and honors repose the remains of Comet (155)."* 

At Killerby the herd was carefully bred, and many fine animals 
reared, which are duly mentioned and exalted as prize-takers at the 
shows, truly, no doubt, by Mr. Carr, but which we have not space to 
record — all being represented in the volumes of the English Herd 
Books of the times. Among the cows, very deep milkers are occa- 
sionally named. Mr. Carr remarks : 

" It does not appear that Mr. John Booth was a very frequent 
competitor in the show-fields until the establishment of the Royal 
and Yorkshire Shows in 1839. Before this time Short-horn cattle 
were kept chiefly for dairy and grazing purposes; the majority of 
the male stock were steered, and many a fine heifer that took the 
butcher's eye was converted into Christmas beef. Necklace and 
Bracelet [twin heifer calves of Toy, before named] shared the pas- 
ture and the straw-yard with the ordinary stock of the farm until 
nearly two years old. As calves they never had more milk than their 
dam, who suckled them both, supplied; and, throughout the whole 
of their victorious career, they derived their chief support from the 
pasture, with a daily feed of corn meal and [oil] cake. Yet Bracelet 
won seventeen prizes at the various meetings of the Royal Agricul- 
tural Society of England, the Highland Society of Scotland, the 
Yorkshire Society, and other local shows ; and at the Yorkshire Show 
in 1 841, where she won the first prize for extra stock, the sweepstakes 
for the best lot of cattle not less than four in number, was awarded 
to Bracelet, Necklace, Mantalini, and Ladythorn. Necklace won 
sixteen prizes and one gold and three silver medals at the various 
meetings above mentioned, as well as at the Smithfield Club, f where 
she finished her career as a prize-taker in 1846, by winning the first 
prize of her class and the gold medal (for which there were thirty- 
seven competitors) as the best animal exhibited in any of the cow or 
heifer classes." 

After relating at some length the practice of Mr. Booth's close 
breeding, (for the brothers seldom bred any bulls of strange blood 
into their herds after they had become permanently established, unless 

* Vide page 75, ante. — L. F. A. 

t The Smithfield Show at London, is for f«t, and not breeding animals. — L. F. A. 



112 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

to take a single cross, and then at once to return to the blood of their 
own stock,) and the names of sundry prize animals of the herd, Mr. 
Carr remarks : 

" It has been asserted by over-zealous advocates of the system of 
close interbreeding, that the crosses of Mussulman, Lord Lieutenant, 
Match em, and others, introduced scarcely any fresh blood into the 
Booth herds ; for inasmuch as no alien bulls were used but those 
whose veins were surcharged with the blood of Favorite, the recourse 
to them was nothing more than a recurrence to, or renewal of, the 
old family strain ; but this is really only what is true of every well- 
bred Short-horn of the period, and therefore proves nothing. Take 
any one of them, and trace back the pedigree of each of its progeni- 
tors (whose numbers of course increase each generation back in a 
geometrical progression), and this bull Favorite will be found to recur 
directly and indirectly a surprising number of times. The following 
elaborate calculations, for which I am indebted to the Rev. J. Storer, 
of Hellidon, may be quoted in illustration of this : Mussulman is 
64 times descended from Favorite ; namely, through Magnum Bonum 
30, through Pirate 22, through Houghton 9, through Marshal Blucher 
3 ; total, 64 times. Lord Lieutenant was 106 times descended from 
Favorite, and Matchem 52 times. Crown Prince is 1,055 times 
descended from Favorite, and Red Rose by Harbinger 1,344 times. 
So the produce of the two are descended from him 2,399 times. 
But work out the Duchesses or any Short-horns of good blood, and 
the result will be found very much the same. It will not do, there- 
fore, to claim bulls as of kindred blood on this ground only. 
Moreover, it must in candor be admitted by the advocates of in-and- 
in breeding that a careful consideration of the above facts leads to 
one unavoidable conclusion. Very strong in-and-in breeding is a 
totally different thing in our case from what it was in the case of the 
earlier breeders, the Collings and Mr. Thomas Booth — so different 
that there can be but little analogy between the two cases. They 
bred in-and-in from animals which had little or no previous affinity. 
We breed in-and-in from animals full of the same blood to begin 
with. In our case the via media, and therefore the via salutis, would 
seem to lie in the adoption of two apparently opposite principles — 
in-and-in breeding, and fresh blood. It is manifest, however, that this 
latter principle should be acted upon with extreme caution, or to a 
very limited extent, when it is desirable to preserve and perpetuate 
the distinctive type of any particular tribe, especially when, as in the 
Warlaby herd, there is no visible deterioration in symmetry, sub- 



THE WARLABY HERD. 113 

stance, or stamina, or any want of fertility traceable to in-and-in 
breeding. Yet even in such cases it is doubtless advisable to have 
occasional recourse to remote alliances, taking care to have as many 
removes as possible between members of the same family ; or, where 
using bulls nearly related to the cows, giving preference to such as 
have been subjected to different conditions of life, it being a well- 
known physiological fact that a change of soil and climate effects 
perhaps almost as great a change in the constitution as would result 
from an infusion of other blood."* 

These remarks would, perhaps, be more in place when on the sub- 
ject of breeding, but finding them here in connection with the Booth 
system, now under discussion, they will be duly considered by the 
reader. 

In July, 1 85 2, the Killerby herd was sold at auction. The sale 
was largely attended by breeders from all parts of the kingdom. At 
that time there was an unusual depression in all agricultural values ; 
the prices at which the cattle sold were comparatively low, and did 
not realize at all what their several merits and celebrity demanded. 
Some of them afterwards changed hands and sold for thrice the 
prices they brought at the Booth sale. 

Mr. J. Booth retained a few choice cows from the general sale, 
which Mr. Carr says were of "distinguished lineage, and if more 
recent in their origin, have given rise to other families proved to 
trace that origin to the herds of the Booths, and the quiet meadows 
of Killerby." Mr. J. Booth continued at Killerby until his death, in 
1857, when his sons, Thomas C. and John, came into possession of 
his herd. 

The Warlaby Herd. 

" It is now necessary to take a retrospect of the herd at Warlaby, 
commencing with the year 1835, when Mr. Richard Booth, inheriting 
the estate, went to reside there. Mr. Booth's residence at Warlaby 
is a modest, unassuming, country house. It stands environed by 
well-timbered paddocks, in a rich meadowy tract of country, bounded 
by distant hills, and known as the Vale of the Wiske. It is one mile 
from the village of Ainderby, of which it is a hamlet, and about 
three from Northallerton, the central town of the North-Riding, in 
Yorkshire. The farm, as occupied by Mr. Booth, consisted of 310 
acres, about half in pasture ; other farms then let off, have since his 

* Sound physiological principle that should be heeded by all careful breeders. — L. F. A. 



114 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

I 
death been added to it. The land is better in character than that at 

Killerby ; it is chiefly clayey loam, and grows fine wheat and turnips, 
and long hay. The pastures are well adapted for cows, but unsuited 
for sheep, because liable to be flooded. The River Wiske, which 
still retains its Gaelic name, Uisg (water), being the most sluggish of 
all the North Yorkshire brooks, and having the shallowest stream- 
channel, frequently overflows the lower pastures, and large, deep 
ditches, which have been fatal to many a good cow, intersect the 
fields to carry off the water. 

"The house was everything that an old bachelor or his friends 
could require; and many a visitor there can bear testimony that 
within its walls reigned supreme the open-hearted northern hospi- 
tality to an extent that Southrons know not. Many a valuable cup 
and hard-won medal may there be seen ; the portrait of many a 
prize-taker decorates its rooms ; and many a pleasant hour has been 
spent and ancient story told in that quiet Short-horn home, while 
the genuine old Squire 

Refilled his pipe, ' and showed how fields were won.' 

" Shortly after settling at Warlaby, Mr. Richard Booth had quite 
made up his mind to give up the breeding of Short-horns, and had 
already sold individual animals from the Strawberry and Moss Rose 
tribes, when a bantering remark made by a gentleman in the neigh- 
borhood, to the effect that 'the Booths had lost their Blood,' incited 
him to change his purpose, and put his friend's assertion to the proof. 
The Warlaby herd had for some years past been kept very much in 
the shade, Mr. Thomas Booth having been latterly intent only on 
breeding useful animals, without aspiring to the honors, or courting 
the notoriety of public exhibition ; but Mr. Richard Booth felt 
assured that it contained ample materials to enable him to guard the 
laurels that had been bequeathed to him." 

After giving with such luxury of description the home of Richard 
Booth and its hospitable occupant, Mr. Carr goes into an enumera- 
tion of most of the animals adopted as the bases of his productive 
herd, for he had now made up his mind again to heartily enter the 
list in competition with the other breeders of his vicinity for new 
laurels and honors. He was an enthusiast in his love of Short-horns, 
and as we before remarked having no domestic cares to withdraw his 
attention, his whole mind was directed (as a Short-horn breeder's 
should be, if he means to excel) to the propagation and improvement 
of his herd, and in it he eminently succeeded. 



THE WARLABY HERD. 1 15 

In glowing rhapsody of almost indiscriminate praise — and we do 
not say that any portion of his descriptions are untruthful — Mr. Carr 
occupies fifty further pages with the names of animals which Richard 
Booth bred, the tribes to which they belonged, the prizes he won, and 
the applause he drew as a successful breeder. One author relates : 

" It has been reported that Mr. Booth refused for his cow Queen 
of the May, an offer of 1500 guineas,* the highest price ever bidden 
for a Short-horn. The circumstances — which are given on the late 
Mr. R. Booth's authority — are these : Two gentlemen from America, 
apparently agents for an American company, came to see the herd, 
and when they saw Queen of the May were completely riveted by 
the fascination of her beauty. After dwelling for some time upon 
her perfections, they inquired of Mr. Booth whether he would part 
with her. He replied that he 'would not sell her for the highest 
price ever given for a Short-horn.' 'That, sir,' said one of them, 
'was, I believe, 1200 guineas?' Mr. Booth answered in the affirma- 
tive. They consulted together, and asked him whether he would 
take 1500 guineas, which Mr. Booth declined to do, remarking that 
if she bred a living calf, and he had the luck to rear it, she was 
worth more to him to keep, and they relinquished her with regret, 
leaving on Mr. Booth's mind the impression that, if he had enter- 
tained the idea, even that large amount might possibly not have been 
their final offer." 

It appears, among other things, that Mr. Booth had fallen into the 
recently growing absurd and destructive practice of "training" his 
animals for the annual " Royal " and district exhibitions. This was 
no less than loading them with excessive fat in order to win prizes. 
This mode of "training" injured them for months, or years, and in 
frequent instances for life, as breeders, bulls and cows alike, and him- 
self, in common with others, severely suffered in consequence. Yet 
knowing the ill effects of such practice, it is still kept up in England, 
and we fear that it will yet leap across the ocean, to some extent, in 
America. We trust not, but there is no knowing to what extremes 
of rivalry our spirited breeders may venture to win the honors so 
eagerly sought at our public exhibitions. This system, Mr. Carr says, 
Mr. Booth "strongly deprecated," but was obliged to fall into it or 
give up showing his animals in competition at the exhibitions. 

At Warlaby, in the enjoyment of an ample estate, surrounded by 
faithful servants, happy in the fidelity of his old herdsman, "Cuddy," 

* A higher price has been offered and refused in the United States for a cow. Both offer and 
refusal were bona Jide, as we know. — L. F. A. 



Il6 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

who was frequently assisted in his minor duties by his equally faithful 
and brave-hearted old wife, " Nanny ;" his trusty fac totum, John White, 
living on the farm from his boyhood, "who was butler, waiting servant, 
and valet to him, as well as registrar-general of the births, deaths,- 
and marriages, and all else that transpired in the Warlaby herd," 
Richard Booth lived, dispensing a wide hospitality to his friends and 
acquaintances, and, in his charities, ever mindful of the needy. 

" When illness had confined Mr. Booth to the house, and Cuddy 
had become less active, John made it his business, in addition to his 
household duties, to keep a watchful eye on the cattle — especially 
the young or ailing ones — in the neighborhood of the house. So 
admirably did he discharge this self-imposed duty, so methodical 
were his habits, so retentive his memory, and so scrupulous his 
observance of his master's orders, that the active management of the 
herd mainly devolved upon his shoulders, and Mr. Booth found him 
an invaluable auxiliary. 

" Last, not least, came doughty Willie Jacques, the farm-bailiff, 
who had been upwards of forty years in the family. He first lived 
with Mr. R. Booth at Studley, who sent him to Warlaby in the old 
master's time, to take the management of the arable land and work 
people. Willie Jacques' pride was rather in the nameless nonde- 
scripts of the farm, the bullocks and half-bred heifers, which converted 
his marvelous root and clover crops into goodly rounds and lordly 
barons of marbled beef, than in the pampered aristocrats of the herd, 
born to consume the fruits of the soil whether earned or not. Proud 
as Willie was of their triumphs in the show-field, nothing exasperated 
him like the failure on the part of any of them to contribute their 
yearly quota towards the increase of the herd. Willie Jacques had a 
capital head for tillage and general farming, and was always at his 
post, from which nothing could move him but the Christmas Fat 
Show at Smithfield. 'I'se seea thrang I canna gang,' was his answer 
to all invitations. Curt of speech and unceremonious in bearing was 
Willie Jacques in his sturdy northern independence ; but get him 
upon the subject of his kind old master, and all the frost of his 
nature melted away, and you found that under that dry, almost blunt 
manner, a heart as kindly as a child's was hidden. In one of the 
rooms at Warlaby hung an admirable portrait of this highly respecta- 
ble and respected steward of the Warlaby estate. 

" But there was one other personage, to forget whom in a sketch of 
Warlaby would be fatal to the character of any historian — a person- 
age who, though seldom visible, has contributed to the visitor, perhaps 



THE WARLABY HERD. 117 

not the least comfortable reminiscence which an Englishman carries 
away with him from any place of passing interest ; and that is Ann, 
faithful Ann, that white-bibbed paragon of natty spruceness — the 
housekeeper. She came, nobody knows how many years ago, to 
nurse the # former housekeeper, an old friend of hers, who was ill, and 
who died at Warlaby ; and Ann continued until Master could find 
one to suit him, which he never did, and so Ann remained still ; and 
many are the visitors who can testify to the excellence of the pigeon 
pies, apricot tarts, and other delectable cates, which those brisk and 
clever hands have fabricated." 

This is a delightful picture, and we are happy to chronicle it in 
such happy connection. "The good old man" died with the resig- 
nation of a Christian, October 31, 1864, at the ripe age of seventy-six 
years, and was buried "beneath the shade of the old gray tower of 
Ainderby, which looks down upon the scene of his useful and quiet 
labors. But Warlaby is there still, and his kith and kin retain its 
hall and herd." 

We here take our leave of Mr. Carr and his interesting history, 
and can only refer those wishing further particulars relating to the 
recent breeding of the Booth stock, to the book itself. The present 
Thomas C. Booth succeeded to the Warlaby estate, and a considera- 
ble part of the herd, on the death of his uncle Richard. The labors 
and sagacity of the Booth family — father and sons — whatever merits 
may be truthfully given to their contemporaries, place them, with the 
Collings, in the roll of benefactors. As to the improvements made 
by the Booths in the style or merits of their stock we have little, if 
anything to say, as so many of their cattle, and their direct descend- 
ants, are now alive, both in England and America, that every observer 
can form his own individual opinion. In their practice of breeding 
they followed the Collings ; that is, breeding chiefly within the blood 
of their own herds, only going beyond them when they supposed by 
such course they could supply a deficiency of quality, and that 
object achieved, returning to their own blood as the polar star of 
their progress. That they bred eminently fine cattle no one will 
dispute ; but whether they have proved preeminent in all the fine 
qualities which perfect a Short-horn, those conversant with them 
will judge. They have a style, in some respects, peculiarly their own, 
and as with all other animals of prominent mark, have their warm 
advocates, as well as those who look upon them with less favor. 



118 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 



CHAPTER V. 

Thomas Bates — His Short-horns and their Breeding. 

Partially contemporary in time, but much younger in years, Mr. 
Bates came onto the stage during the full career of the Collings and 
the elder Booth. He established himself as a breeder in the later 
days of the Collings, and obtained his earliest Short-horns directly 
from Charles, and afterwards from the herds of Robert, which formed 
the foundation for his ultimate success in breeding. 

We have recently been favored with a book entitled " The History 
of the Improved Short-horn or Durham Cattle, and of the Kirkleaving- 
ton Herd, from the Notes of the late Thomas Bates, with a Memoir by 
Thomas Bell, Brockton House, Eccleshall, Staffordshire." The book 
contains 375 pages, small octavo, compiled by one who intimately 
knew Mr. Bates, and for many years was a tenant and herdsman on 
a portion of the very considerable farm which Mr. Bates occupied at 
Kirkleavington, not far from Darlington. 

Of Mr. Bates, we have for more than thirty years past known 
somewhat, both in his various writings, from what other Englishmen 
have written about him, and from men on both sides of the Atlantic, 
who were personally acquainted with him and his herds of cattle, so 
much as to learn his personal character, his manner of breeding, and 
the extent of success which he achieved in the long course of his 
action. From Mr. A. B. Allen, of New York City, who visited Eng- 
land in the year 1841, and for some time was a guest of Mr. Bates, 
we obtained the first particulars of him as a Short-horn breeder, and 
through Mr. A., as editor of the " 'American Agriculturist" he was 
first prominently introduced to the acquaintance of the Short-horn 
breeders of the United States. A few of his animals had previ- 
ously — in the year 1834 — come to America through the purchases 
of an importing company formed in the Scioto Valley, Ohio. Not 
long afterwards he sent over, as a present, to Kenyon College, in Ohio, 
two or three animals. In 1840 he sold to Mr. George Vail, of Troy, 
N. Y., a bull and cow, which will be hereafter noticed. 



tiiomas bates' breeding. 119 

While at his home in 1S41, Mr. Bates told Mr. Allen that he 
intended to write a history of the Short-horns for publication, and 
had already made many notes for that purpose. That history, how- 
ever, he never wrote out, nor published. From those notes and 
various letters and other publications left by him, at a period of twenty 
years after his decease Mr. Bell has compiled his book, together with 
various collateral matter drawn from the writings of others, and inter- 
spersed with occasional notes of his own, some few of which are 
original with himself. 

Of Mr. Bell's book, its matter and compilation, we have but little 
to say, as a literary labor. It lacks methodical arrangement. It has 
not even an index, other than the discursive titles at the heads of its 
several parts, or chapters, and they in no consecutive order of sub- 
ject, time, or place. Its chronology is deficient, few dates being 
given, and what there are of them playing hither and thither in 
ambuscade, as may happen during a period of sixty years, disjointed 
and difficult to connect. In the absence of quotation marks in the 
text, we hardly know what is the composition of Mr. Bates, and what 
the compiler's, except by guess, while the various letters and public 
addresses of Mr. Bates and others are appropriately marked, but in 
the same disordered arrangement of time as the other parts of the 
work; yet, by close examination, we can understand them. The 
book is not, in fact, a lucid history of either the Short-horns, or even 
of Mr. Bates, or his cattle breeding, but rather loose memoranda and 
sketches of history left by Mr. Bates and others. We exceedingly 
regret that during his life time Mr. Bates himself could not have 
written out his memoranda — for he was capable of doing it — and left 
to the world an intelligible general history of the Short-horns, as well 
as those of his own breeding. Such a work should have been done 
by an Englishman, capable of performing it. To obtain a continuous 
narrative of Mr. Bates' proceedings one is obliged to skip over numer- 
ous pages, and then turn back to keep a thread of his "history," and 
arrive at a clear understanding of his action. Still, there is much 
valuable matter scattered throughout the book which, by diligent 
research, the reader may appropriate and digest into important 
information. Yet, bating its deficiencies, we are thankful for the 
work Mr. Bell has given us, as some new facts, through Mr. Bates' 
version of them, are stated in his memoranda, containing important 
information, which, if not hitherto secret, or but partially known, 
throw light on disputed questions, setting previous inaccuracies at 
rest. 



120 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

Although from what we had previously learned of Mr. Bates, we 
deemed him a man addicted to controversy, prejudices, and crotchets, 
his writings now show him actually to be such, for his biographer has 
covered nothing of these foibles, although his compilations truthfully 
illustrate him as of unexceptionable private character, and decided 
moral worth. The crowning ambition of his life to breed and furnish 
the world a herd of Short-horns that should exhibit to posterity his 
skill as a breeder is fully developed. So much for the book. ' We 
propose to give from this and other authorities a synopsis of Mr. 
Bates' life and proceedings in all that is important to be known relat- 
ing to him and his stock-breeding career, without either partiality or 
prejudice, and if in the course of our remarks we sometimes touch 
on his inconsistencies, or censure his assertions, it will only be in the 
cause of truth and accuracy of historical facts. 

With all his partialities and prejudices, Mr. Bates was sound in 
heart and morals ; he blurted out his opinions irrespective of whom 
they pleased or offended, and if he sometimes made enemies, he had 
also his warm, attached friends. He was rather tory in his politics, a 
decided "protectionist," and an advocate of the "corn laws" in prin- 
ciple ; a statesman to some extent, in his teachings, which his early 
good education, together with his naturally broad and clear observa- 
tion of the times, had helped him to become. He was kind to the 
poor, liberal in his charities, both private and public, a sound adhe- 
rent of the established church — rather of the "low" order — a com- 
panion and associate among the most intelligent classes of men, and 
like others of generous sympathies, loved the distinction and honors 
that were frequently conferred upon him. His personal habits were 
abstemious and temperate ; his hospitality was open, genial, and lib- 
eral, to peer, or peasant ; his hand ever free to the claims of distress ; 
his conversation winning, and open-hearted, abounding in well-told 
anecdote, and sparkles of wit ; his affections kindly, and although a 
life-long bachelor, he loved children, whose companionship was always 
a source of pleasure to him. In short, bating his minor eccentricities 
of character, like very many Short-horn breeders of his own and the 
present day, Mr. Bates was — a gentleman — with some oddities. 

Thomas Bates was born on one of the estates belonging to the 
Dukedom of Northumberland, in the year 1775, in the valley of the 
river Tyne, on a place called Tyneside, at Ovington Hall, of a respect- 
able family, among the elder branches of which had been a Member 
of Parliament, a Professor in the Colleges, and a Divine of the Church. 
In his boyhood he was early sent to a grammar school ; afterwards 



THOMAS BATES* BREEDING. 121 

spent a considerable time in the University at Edinburgh, and 
received a good education. Being of rather a slender constitution, 
and studious in habit, he was intended for the Church ; but that 
calling not suiting his more active temperament, he chose agriculture 
as a profession. He began his agricultural education at Aydon 
Castle, in the neighborhood of which lived George Culley, an emi- 
nent stock breeder and agricultural writer, from whom young Bates 
in his frequent intimacies took sound lessons in his newly-chosen 
pursuit. This period of his life must have been at about sixteen or 
seventeen years of age ; but according to some of his own remarks 
in later years, he speaks of knowing the Collings and their stock as 
early as 1782. So early a day, however, we think a mistake, as in 
that year he could only have been five or six years old. There are 
other anachronisms of date in some of his narrations of events, inad- 
vertent, possibly, but which, if true, would make him many years 
older than he is stated. In an article written by him in 1842, he says : 
" It is notu above sixty years since I became impressed with the im- 
portance of selecting the very best animals to breed from, and for 
twenty-five years afterwards lost no opportunity of ascertaining the 
merits of the various tribes of Short-horns." This would put his 
birth back some years anterior to 1775, the date given by his biogra- 
pher, as he could scarcely be expected to have much judgment in 
the way of cattle before he was at least twelve or fifteen years old. 
There may possibly be an error as to his birth in 1775, as we have 
heard it remarked by several persons who knew him not long previ- 
ous to his death in 1849, that he must, from appearances and his own 
statements, have been at the time of their conversations with him, 
although active and vigorous, quite eighty years of age. The fact, 
is now of little consequence ; but that at a very early age he had 
imbibed a passionate love of farm stock, there can be no question. 

After a few years at Aydon Castle, and under his majority, he 
became a tenant farmer under his father on the estate of Park End, 
in the vale of North Tyne, where he showed his aptitude for farming 
and improving land, fencing, and various other economies in agricul- 
ture. There he remained until the year 1800, when he took the 
extensive farm and estate of Halton Castle, also in Northumberland, 
where he began stock rearing and grazing on his own account. It 
appears that he first adopted the Kyloes, or West Highland cattle, 
which it was the custom to drive in large numbers from the rougher 
lands in Scotland down to the richer farms of the north of England, 
to fatten for market. Soon afterwards, these not altogether suiting 



122 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

his purpose, he made a visit to the Collings, and was attracted by the 
superior qualities of the Short-horns of their several herds. He saw 
the "Durham Ox," bred and reared by Charles, and the peerless 
"White Heifer that Traveled," bred by Robert, and immediately 
concluded to adopt that blood for his future breeding. 

At this point it may be well to mention that Mr. Bates had by gifts 
from his father and his own earnings come into possession of several 
thousand pounds, with which to commence and prosecute farming 
and stock breeding on a considerable scale, and although a " tenant 
farmer," a comparatively large amount of capital was necessary to. 
establish himself in that branch of business. "At entering on the 
farm at Halton Castle he received from his father many excellent 
cattle, and also the improved Leicester sheep. He also obtained 
some Cleveland bay horses, which at that time had been bred to 
great perfection on Tyneside. The swine, and even poultry, did not 
escape his attention ; but it was to his herds of cattle that he devoted 
his greatest attention. He bought cows of Messrs. Colling in 1800, 
but I can find no record of them."* It appears that so far as the 
Short-horns were concerned he soon made a determination to obtain 
the very best animals which his purse would command, of unimpeach- 
able blood, and without regard to the profits he should make from 
them, establish a herd second to none other, and found an enduring 
reputation as a breeder. This determination, therefore, may be the 
key to the various controversies in which he was afterwards engaged, 
and the acrimony with which some of his future correspondence with 
other breeders was tainted, and into which he was probably goaded 
by their accusations upon him. Of positive convictions, and deter- 
mined purposes, he had the pecuniary means to prosecute his plans, 
and hesitated at nothing which should honestly accomplish them. 

On looking over the Colling herds his attention was peculiarly 
attracted to the stock descended from the "Stanwick," or first 
"Duchess" cow (of which Charles had become possessed in 1784), 
and the bull Hubback, which it did not appear that Colling himself 
so highly appreciated as to retain it solely to his own use. In a 
letter written by Mr. Bates to " The Netv Farmer's Journal" in 
November, 1842, he gives this account: "Having purchased my 
original cow Duchess [calved in 1800, got by Daisy bull (186)], of 
this tribe of cattle, of the late Charles Colling thirty-eight years ago." 
With some notes on several remarkable animals which he had seen 

* Bell's History, pp. 119-20. 



THOMAS BATES' BREEDING. 123 

of this stock, he continues : " I selected this tribe of Short-horns as 
superior to all other cattle, not only as small consumers, but as great 
growers, and quick grazers, with the finest quality of beef. My first 
Duchess calved at Halton Castle, June 7, 1807. She was kept on 
grass only, in a pasture with nineteen other cows, and made in butter 
and milk for some months above two guineas per week." Not know- 
ing the prices of either milk by the gallon, or butter by the pound, 
at that time, a statement of the quantity of each, which the cow 
made, would be more satisfactory to readers of the present day. 

The pedigree of his original cow, above named, of the Duchess 
tribe, runs thus : Got by Daisy Bull (186) [Daisy Bull was by Favor- 
ite (252), dam by Punch (531), gr. d. by Hubback (319)], out of 
Duchess, by Favorite (252), — Duchess, by Hubback (319), — (Stan- 
wick) Duchess, by James Brown's red bull (97). This cow Mr. Bates 
took to his farm at Halton Castle. Finding by the use of Short-horn 
bulls on his Highland cows how wonderfully it improved their size 
and quality as feeding animals, he was now fully confirmed of their 
superior value when in their purity of blood. 

The cow "Duchess, by Daisy Bull," had produced Charles Colling 
a heifer, by Favorite (252), before, and in the same year that Bates 
purchased her, which heifer Colling retained. The year succeeding 
that in which Mr. Bates purchased the cow, she produced the bull 
Ketton (709), also by Favorite, which he retained for his subsequent 
breeding. Producing no heifer calves to him, Bates sold the cow in 
the year 1809, to a Mr. Donkin. While in the latter hands she bred 
several calves, but her heifers, if she had any, left no produce. At 
seventeen years of age, having done breeding, she was fed off and 
made an excellent carcass of beef. She was always a great milker. 

Having his eye continually on this Duchess blood, at the final sale 
of Charles Colling's herd in 1810, a two-year-old heifer, "Young 
Duchess," by Comet (155), dam by Favorite (252), gr. d. by Daisy 
Bull (186), etc. [this gr. d. being the same "Duchess, by Daisy Bull," 
previously purchased of Colling by Mr. Bates], was advertised in the 
herd to be sold. She was a granddaughter of " Duchess, by Daisy 
Bull," and as will be seen by the pedigree above mentioned, closely 
interbred to the blood of Favorite (252). This heifer Bates deter- 
mined to possess, but fearing to openly bid for her himself, (as Mrs. 
Colling, who was as shrewd and knowing a manager in the cattle line 
as her husband, and had well known of Bates' predilections for that 
blood, might covertly run her up to an exorbitant price,) he got another 
party to do the bidding, and the heifer was struck off to him at 183 



124 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

guineas (a trifle over $900).* Much chagrin was afterwards mani- 
fested by the Collings when they found that Bates was the purchaser, 
and Mrs. C. declared to him that had they known it was his bid that 
was made, the heifer would have been run up to twice or thrice the 
amount before he could have taken her ! So it appears there was 
some chicanery practiced in those early days of cattle sales. Bates, 
however, triumphed on the result of his bargain, as in this heifer he 
had secured, as it afterwards proved, his grand success and crowning 
glory as a Short-horn breeder. He called the heifer Duchess 1st, 
(the first one of her tribe recorded in the Herd Book,) and in his 
hands she became the founder, on the female side, of his Duchess 
tribe, which he exclusively bred for thirty-nine years afterwards, and 
which are continued in the hands of several owners in England and 
America to the present day. 

Mr. Colling had been in possession of the tribe since he bought 
the original Duchess (Stanwick) cow, in the year 1784, twenty-six 
years previous to this transfer of Duchess 1st to Mr. Bates, so that 
the tribe on the side of their dams at the present time shows an 
unbroken lineage of eighty-eight years. 

In 1 82 1 Mr. Bates left Halton, and removed to a farm of 300 acres, 
at Ridley Hall — whether in Northumberland or Durham, we are not 
informed — which he had purchased (tenant right, we suppose) in 
18 18, and remained nine years, until 1830; but the place not alto- 
gether suiting him, and being rather inconvenient of access, he 
purchased Kirkleavington, an estate of about 1000 acres, in the valley 
of the Tees, and removed there in that year. He had now, by vari- 
ous manipulations and profitable trades in the disposition of his 
farms and otherwise, together with a legacy from an aunt, become 
possessed of about ^20,000 ($100,000), which afforded him ample 
means with which to prosecute his cattle breeding and other labors, 
and gave him leisure to take part in the political, as well as econom- 
ical questions of the day, touching the agricultural interests of the 
country. 

Kirkleavington is thus described: "It is pleasantly situated on 
rising ground in the vale of Cleveland, and mostly on the new red 
sandstone formation. It contains some excellent grass land. It had 
been the seat of the Percys, and afterwards belonged to the Strath- 
more family, and was many years occupied by the Maynards, well 

* The only bull of the pure Duchess blood in Colling's possession at the 1810 sale — Duke 
(226) — was sold to Anthony Comptou, Carham Hall, Northumberland, for 105 guineas. 







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THOMAS BATES' BREEDING. 125 

known in Short-horn history."* To Kirkleavington, in the midst of 
the famed Short-horn localities, which surrounded it, he brought his 
cattle stock of the several families of which it was at the time com- 
posed. In possession of Duchess 1st, by Comet (155), in the year 1810, 
he had worked industriously on by the use of the " Ketton " bulls, with 
her breeding. Down to the year 1819 that cow had produced him 
four heifer calves, viz.: Duchess 2d and 3d, by Ketton 1st (907); 
Duchess 4th and 5th, by Ketton 2d (710); and one bull [Cleveland 
(146)], by Ketton 3d (349). These Kettons were solely of the Duchess 
tribe, and as closely interbred as may be imagined, which their pedi- 
grees will show. Yet it appears that Mr. Bates was not altogether 
satisfied with the exclusive use of the Duchess blood in his bulls. He 
once remarked to a gentleman who told us the fact, (and we have seen 
the same statement under his own name,f) that he at one time offered 
Robert Colling 100 guineas ($500) to have his 1st Duchess, by Comet 
(155), served by his "White bull" (151), whose dam and granddam 
were both by Favorite (252). "White bull" was of the "Princess" 
tribe, closely related to the Duchess, but strangers on the remote 
d m's side to the blood of the latter, she running back several gen- 
erations to "Studley bull" (626). Colling refused the offer, and 
Bates was disappointed. 

Down to the year 1831 Mr. Bates had bred thirty-two Duchess 
cows, and in the production of all he had used his bulls of purely 
Duchess blood with the exceptions of Marske (418),! which was sire 
to Duchess 7th, 8th and 9th, and Young Markse (419), § which was 
sire to Duchess nth. Still, having no other resource that suited him 
for a bull outside of his own herd, and holding an abiding faith in 
the value of the Duchess blood beyond any other than what was 
contained in "Colling's White bull" (151), and which latter blood, in 
the crosses that he particularly liked, had hitherto been out of his 
reach, he bred on with his Duchess bulls — after the Kettons — Cleve- 
land (146); The Earl (646); The 2d Earl (15 n); The 3d Earl 
(1514); and 2d Hubback (1423),! down to the year 1831, in which 

* Bell's History, p. 131. 

+ Bates' letter to " Mark Lane Express," written in 1842. 

* Marske was bred by Robert Colling, calved in 1806, got by Favorite (252), dam by Favorite 
(252), — by Favorite (252), — by Punch (531), — by Hubback (319), — by Snowdon's bull (612), — by 
Masterman's bull (422), — by Harrison's bull (292), — by Studley bull (626), a pedigree full of the 
best blood. 

§ Young Marske was got by Marske (418), out of Duchess 4th, by Ketton 2d (710), etc. He 
was of thorough Duchess descent excepting the cross through Marske, his sire. 

II 2d Hubback was but half pure Duchess blood, being got by The Earl (646), out of Red Rcse 
ist, by Yarborough (705^, — The American Cow, etc. 



126 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

his 3 2d Duchess (the last one begotten exclusively by the Duchess 
bulls, with the exception of the Marske and 2d Hubback crosses) 
was calved. 

With the production of Duchess 32d, Mr. Bates halted, and wisely. 
From the possession of his Duchess 1st, in 1810, for a period of 
twenty-two years, we find but thirty-one of her female descendants 
recorded in the Herd Books. There were, meantime, sundry bulls 
dropped from them, but mostly sold to other breeders, excepting those 
which he had used in breeding, and even they had been, during some 
seasons, let out for service to various parties. The simple fact was, 
the Duchess cows, as a whole, had not been prolific, or constant 
breeders, through abortions or other causes, and whenever they passed 
a year or two without breeding, he fed off and slaughtered them.* 
The bulls descended from them showed no lack of virility, and Bates 
still contended that the tribe had increased in their fineness of quality, 
were admirable feeders, and good milkers when breeding. He was 
at a stand how further to proceed, and was really — unhappy. He 
had little faith in the blood of his neighboring breeders, however 
good many of their individual animals might have been, (a crotchet 
of his own, perhaps,) and although he had tried one or two of their 
bulls on some of his other tribes of cows, he did not, except in two 
or three individual cases, risk his Duchesses with them. From his 
occasional attacks on their blood (for he was prone to speak his mind 
freely of what he either liked or disliked) he had somewhat aroused 
their ire, and could find no relief in anything they had to offer him, 
if indeed, any offer of their assistance was made. He would not go 
to the Booths, as they contended that four crosses of well-bred pedi- 
gree bulls, on good, well-bred cows, originally without recorded pedi- 
grees, were sufficient for the establishment of standard blood. Nor 
would he go to Mason, Wetherell, Maynard, or any other of the old 
breeders for a bull, as he found some flaw or other, more or less, in 
their pedigrees, or with being tainted late in the last century with the 
"Alloy" (Galloway) blood of Charles Colling, through the "Grandson 
of Bolingbroke" (280). 

Hearing that Mr. John Stephenson, living at Wolviston, about 
twelve miles distant, had some stock descended from the Princess 
tribe of Robert Colling (and of which Stephenson had become pos- 
sessed through Sir Henry Vane Tempest, and his wife, the Countess 
of Antrim, who had years before bought it from Colling), he rode 

* Bell's History. 



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THOMAS BATES' BREEDING. 1 27 

over there one day to see whether he could find anything to suit 
him. In passing a stable on his way to the house, through a window 
opening into it, he spied the head of a bull which immediately 
excited his curiosity. He went in and there saw Belvedere (1706). 
He proceeded to the house, met Mr. Stephenson, and asked his 
price for the bull. He had used him several years, being then, 
in 1S31, six years old, and not caring for further use of him, a 
bargain was struck. The next day Mr. S. drove the bull to Kirk- 
leavington, and Mr. Bates paid ,£50 ($250) for him. The bull's 
pedigree was fully ascertained to the satisfaction of Mr. Bates, being 
essentially of the blood of Robert Colling's White bull (151), through 
descents of the same character, and he thus became established for 
some years, as the future breeding bull of Mr. Bates' herd. His 
pedigree is thus given in Vol. 3, English Herd Book : 

"(1706.) Belvedere. — Yellow roan, calved April 6, 1826, bred 
by Mr. Stephenson, the property of Mr. Bates, Kirkleavington, near 
Yarm, got by Waterloo (2816), dam Angelina 2d, by Young Wyn- 
yard (2858), — Angelina, by Phenomenon (491), — Anne Boleyn, by 
Favorite (252), — Princess, by Favorite (252) [bred by R. Colling, 
and own sister to his White bull (151)], — by Favorite (252), — by 
Hubback (319), — by Snowdon's bull (612), — by James Masterman's 
bull (422), — by Mr. Harrison's bull [bred by Mr. Waistell, of Burdon] 
(292),* bought of Mr. Pickering, of Sedgefield, by Mr. Hall." 

With the possession of Belvedere, in the next year he had by him 
two Duchess heifers — 33d from Duchess 19th, and 34th from Duchess 
29th. In 1833 he had one heifer, Duchess 35th, by Gambier (2046) 
[by Bertram (17 16), bred by Mr. Whitaker, an outside cross alto- 
gether from his Duchess tribe]. In 1834 he had two Duchesses, 36th 
and 37th, by Belvedere. In 1835 he had 38th Duchess, by Norfolk 
( 2 377) [bred by Whitaker, got by 2d Hubback (1423), one-fourth 
part Duchess and the other three-fourths good blood, running back 
into the Colling stock], and Duchess 39th, 40th and 41st, by Belve- 
dere. In 1837 he had Duchess 42 d and 43d, by Belvedere, which 
were the last heifers of the tribe got by him. 

On the introduction of Belvedere to his herd Mr. Bates used him 
freely on his other tribes in which his crosses will be found on exam- 
ination of their pedigrees in the Herd Books, up to the year 1837. 
Having had the use of him now six years, and needing him no 



* These figures, in the Herd Book< are a mistake, being (669), which we have corrected. (669) 
is Waistell's bull, got by Masterman's bull, in Belvedere's Herd Book pedigree. 



128 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

further, as he then had several young bulls got by him of Duchess 
and other families ; and determining that his blood go no further 
directly into other hands than his own, he had him slaughtered. 

In the year 1838 we find three Duchess heifers, 44th, 45th and 46th, 
were produced by Short Tail (2621) (calved in 1835, by Belvedere, out 
of Duchess 32d), and in 1839 three more, 47th, 48th and 49th, (48th 
and 49th being twins), also by Short Tail. This bull, although fine 
in quality, was inferior in size and not commanding in appearance, 
yet Mr. Bates always said he was one of the best getters he had used. 
He bred him freely to many of his cows outside of the Duchess tribe. 
In the last named year (1839) he also had one Duchess, 50th, by 
Duke of Northumberland (1940) (calved in 1835, by Belvedere, out 
of his own daughter, Duchess 34th, having two direct crosses of 
Belvedere in him). 

The crosses of Belvedere on the Duchess, as well as on the other 
tribes of cows belonging to Mr. Bates, as he had anticipated, proved 
eminently successful, as had also those of Short Tail and Duke of 
Northumberland. The fame of this last named bull has been so 
widely spread, both in tradition and history, that a further notice of 
him is scarcely necessary. His pedigree is fully shown in the Eng- 
lish Herd Book, and his qualities are familiarly known wherever the 
Short-horns are intelligently bred.* His dam, Duchess 34th, f was a 
remarkable cow, both as a milker and in the exceeding symmetry of 
her form. At a year old she broke one of her legs, and was con- 
fined in the stable, most of the time in slings, for the better part of a 
year. Yet, when recovered, she grew up a stately cow, although 
from her constant milking and continuous breeding, she was usually 
low in flesh. She was never but once exhibited at a show, and then 
at nine years old, took the first prize over one of — if not the very 
best show cows in England at the time — Mr. Booth's famous Neck- 
lace, at four years old. 

Duchess 34TH Offered to go to America. 

There is one fact which — years ago — we had publicly stated, and 
since repeated, relating to this cow, which was that Mr. Bates early 

* While Mr. Bates owned Duke of Northumberland (and he died his property) he was at vari- 
ous times offered almost fabulous prices for him, but would not listen to any of them, deter- 
mined that so good a bull should never go out of his own possession. 

t Duchess 34th produced six living calves, viz. : Duke of Northumberland (1940), 2d Duke 
of Northumberland (3646), and Duchess 43d, all by Belvedere ; also Duchess 46th, and 3d and 4th 
Dukes of Northumberland (3647) and (3649), by Short Tail (2621). Duchess 34th also produced 
one premature birth, and another bull calf, which lived but two months, making eight calves in 
all. 



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THE MATCH EM COW. 129 

in the year 1834 offered to sell her, then two years old, to Mr. Felix 
Renick, to be taken to the United States. This fact has been dis- 
puted here — but only on the fiegaiive testimony of a party who went 
out with Mr. Renick, and did not personally hear either the offer or 
its refusal. To set the truth of the fact at rest, which we stated (as 
received in the year 1S41, from Mr. A. B. Allen, of New York, to 
whom Mr. Bates himself told it), we quote from a letter of Mr. Bates 
to Mr. Renick, written a year or two after the latter was in England : 
"Broken Leg (Duchess 34th), I offered you at 100 guineas. If you 
were to send twenty times that sum for her and her produce, I would 
not take it now." The full letter is found in "Bell's History," p. 227. 
She had, when the letter was written, produced the bull Duke of 
Northumberland (1940) to Mr. Bates, and it proved fortunate for him 
that Mr. Renick did not take her. 

We here temporarily leave the Duchess tribe to notice a new intro- 
duction into his herd, viz. : 

The Matchem Cow, 

By which we arrive at another era in the choice breeding of Mr. Bates 
through the infusion of a new cross of blood into his Duchess tribe, 
and the history is too important to be omitted. W r e condense it from 
Mr. Bates' own account, as given in " The New Farmers' Journal" 
(English), dated August 6, 1841. "I purchased her in 1831, she then 
being four years old, at the sale of Mr. Brown, who had purchased 
her granddam at public sale many years before. The catalogue of 
Mr. Brown's sale only stated that the cow was by Matchem (2281),* 
and her dam by Young Wynyard (2859). The pedigree then traced 
no further — the original owner of the stock being dead previous to 
the sale [at which Mr. Brown bought her] — but I have since learned 
from those who knew the stock for many years, that the greatest 

* The published pedigree of Matchem (2281), E. H. B., states that he was got by Bon-ny Face 
(807) or St. Albans (1412), but the fact has since been generally conceded among the older breed- 
ers that St. Albans was the true sire of Matchem. St. Albans was a pure Princess bull, being got 
by Wynyard (703), out of Nell Gwynn, by Phenomenon (491), — Princess, by Favorite (252), — by 
Favorite (252I, etc., running back through Hubback (319) to Studley bull (626). 

An odd story, connected with St. Albans, is related by Mr. Dixon in " Saddle and Sirloin." 
The bull was at first called " Prince," and fell into the hands of a Mr. Wood, who did not at all 
appreciate him, and sold him to a butcher, whom Mr. Mason covertly engaged to buy him for 
£20 ($100). Three years afterwards Wood being at Chilton (Mr. Mason's place), he caught a 
glimpse of St. Alban's head, then fifteen years old, and exclaimed : " Why, this is my old 
Prince ; he was bought to kill." Mason, however, better knew the value of the bull. He had 
re-named him St. Albans, and bred him in his herd, and the bull thus became the sire of a noted 
progeny.— L. F. A. 



130 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

attention had been paid to their breeding, and that the former owner 
had only used bulls of the Wynyard or Princess blood from the time 
the late Sir Henry Vane Tempest purchased that tribe from the late 
Robert Colling, now near forty years ago."* 

To this Princess blood, as has already been observed, Mr. Bates 
had always been attached, and now, in this Matchem cow, from her 
appearance, and what he had learned of her breeding, he hoped for 
good results in her produce — after his own manner of obtaining them. 
When he purchased her he put her into the hands of his tenants, 
Messrs. Bell, for whom, including those in Mr. Brown's hands, she 
bred five, what Mr. Bates called, inferior calves, from being put to 
what he, in his criticising temper, called inferior bulls. He took the 
cow from the Bells at the price he originally paid for her, £\\ ($55), 
believing that if bred to his own bulls of the Duchess tribe, she would 
breed first class stock. 

Matchem Cow was white in color, of good size and symmetry, and 
a most excellent milker, to which latter quality Bates was always 
partial, and strived to promote through the whole course of his breed- 
ing. Her sire, Matchem, on his dam's side, run back into the 
Favorite, Foljambe, Hubback and Maynard blood ; so that the cow 
was considered by Mr. Bates to be a proper instrument to work a 
fresh infusion of blood into his own Duchess tribe, although the latter 
had been crossed but a few years before into the blood of Belvedere. 
The cow came into Bates' herd early in 1833, and in November fol- 
lowing she produced a roan heifer calf to Gambier (2046), of which 
calf we have no account beyond her birth ; but Matchem Cow being 
put to Duke of Cleveland (1937) (by Bertram (1716), out of his 26th 
Duchess), she produced in November, 1834, Oxford Premium Cow, 
so called from having afterwards taken the first premium at the 
" Royal " Show at Oxford in the year 1839. f 

* In the recorded pedigree of the bull Voung Wynyard, he is stated to be bred by the Countess 
of Antrim. This lady bore that title in her own right of descent, altogether independent of her 
then husband, Sir Henry Vane Tempest, who was only a Baronet in title, and of course less in 
rank than his wife, she having the legal right to retain her title irrespective of the name of her 
husband. It was on her estate of Wynyard that the bull Young Wynyard was bred ; and although 
both husband and wife bred Short-horn cattle, each had them as their own personal properties. 
The Wynyard bulls and the cows from which they were descended, were through three crosses 
by Favorite (252), bred back to Hubback (319), and for several generations beyond, to the original 
"cow bought of Mr. Pickering," about the year 1739, all of Robert Colling's Princess tribe. — 
L. F. A. 

t Two of Oxford Premium Cow's bulls afterwards came to America ; one, Locomotive 92 (4242) 
[by Duke of Northumberland (1940)], for Mr. J. C. Letton of Kentucky; the next, Duke of 
Wellington 55 (3654) [by Short Tail (2621)], for Mr. George Vail, Troy, N. V. In January, 1836, 
Matchem Cow also produced a bull calf by Duke of Cleveland— made a steer ; in December of 



THE DUCHESS TRIBE. I 3 1 

After growing up, fit for service, Mr. Bates bred the 1st and 2d 
Cleveland Lads, and 2d Duke of Oxford (9046) (by Duke of North- 
umberland, out of Oxford 2d, above mentioned) to more or less of 
his Duchess cows, until the year of his death, in 1849. Thus the 
two families of Duchess and Oxford (Matchem Cow), became incorpo- 
rated, and the bulls of either tribe were severally used to both classes 
of the cows, not only during Mr. Bates' life, but they have been, with 
few exceptional crosses by bulls of other good blood, so continued to 
the present day, under the more general term of "the Bates blood." 
The female descendants have, however, always been kept separate in 
both name and classification of Duchess, or Oxford, running back in 
their own female genealogies ; but now, after so long an interbreeding 
of nearly forty years, become almost of identical blood. 

Return to the Duchess Tribe. 

Following the year in which Duchess 50th, by Duke of Northumber- 
land (1940), was calved, in 1840, came Duchess 51st, by Cleveland Lad 
(5407). In 1 841 came Duchess 52d, by Holkar (4041) (mainly of 
Belvedere and Duchess blood). In 1842 came Duchess 53d, by Duke 
of Northumberland. In 1844, Duchess 54th, by 2d Cleveland Lad 
(3408), Duchess 55th, by 4th Duke of Northumberland (3649), and 
Duchess 56th, by 2d Duke of Northumberland (3646). In 1845, 
Duchess 57th, by 2d Cleveland Lad (3408). In 1846, Duchess 58th, 
by Lord Barrington (9308) (with three direct Bates crosses in him). 
In 1847, 59th Duchess, by 2d Duke of Oxford (9046), and 60th, by 
4th Duke of Northumberland (3649). In 1848 came 61st, 62d and 
63d Duchess, by 2d Duke of Oxford; and in 1849, 64th Duchess, by 
2d Duke of Oxford, being the last of the Duchess heifers calved in 
Mr. Bates' possession. 

We have been thus minute in enumerating the Duchess tribe while 
in Mr. Bates' hands, to show with what pertinacity he adhered to his 
own plans of breeding, and how he concentrated in them the strains 
of blood which he considered most valuable to effect his purposes. 
It was not, as he always remarked, simply to make money out of 

the same year she produced Cleveland Lad {3407) ; in March, .1838, 2d Cleveland Lad (3408) ; and 
in April, 1839, the heifer Oxford 2d, all three of them by Short Tail (2621). From this last calf 
of Matchem Cow, Oxford 2d, with the exception of Oxford 4th, calved in 1843, by Duke of 
Northumberland, which is the last calf Oxford Premium Cow produced, all the legitimate race of 
Oxford's bulls and cows have proceeded. Having produced ten calves Matchem Cow was put 
dry, and after feeding, made a carcass of 850 pounds of beef. Mr. Bates described her as being 
remarkably healthy, hardy, and an extraordinary milker. 



132 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

them — and which, in fact, he never did — but to achieve a success in 
breeding up a herd which should, in future hands, carry his name 
down to posterity. In this he succeeded after an anxious labor of 
forty years, as is fully evinced in the almost fabulous prices at which 
they have been sold and still sell — $3,000 to $5,000 each, and even 
more than the latter price for bulls, and much higher prices for cows, 
when they can be purchased at all, which is seldom ; in such close 
corporation do their owners hold them that such an event in Short- 
horn history is properly worth recording. Nor, need these prices be 
altogether called infatuation. Many noblemen, as well as common- 
ers in England, who can wield the purses, and intelligent, enterpris- 
ing men in America, who have the spirit and means at command, 
are eager to purchase and breed one or the other, or both the 
"Duchess" and "Oxfords," and when they feel unable or unwill- 
ing to grapple with the " pure Bates " in its fullness, they strive to 
get all they can of the blood wherewith to cross their herds. Such 
is the fact, in the year 1872; and although a succeeding generation 
may call it a folly, yet the additional fact that the use of this blood 
on both sides of the Atlantic has improved the qualities of many of 
the Short-horn race, and increased their popularity with their breed- 
ers, proves that the result has been both good and profitable. 

Notwithstanding the above laudatory remarks, let it be understood 
by the reader that we take no sides in the question of the superior 
merit of the " Bates stock " over many others of different strains of 
blood and breeding. We only write history. There no doubt may 
be, and are, individual animals of divergent blood, and miscellaneous 
breeding, of pure Short-horn stock equally good — possibly better 
than the average animals of the "Bates stock," and perhaps equally 
valuable for practical uses. Of this each one will judge for himself; 
we wish, in our remarks, to prejudice nothing. 

Mr. Bates' other Tribes. 

Of the Oxford tribe, from the year 1834 to the year 1849, inclusive, 
Mr. Bates had bred fourteen females. 

Of the Waterloo tribe (the first cow got by Waterloo (2816), dam 
by Waterloo (181 6), being two crosses by that bull, as we find in her 
pedigree, Vol. 3, E. H. B., which he bought at Thorpe, Durham), 
Mr. Bell's history gives the following account written by Mr. Bates: 
" I have seen the gentleman who bred the Waterloo cow, lately, and 
he stated to me that he and his father had had the breed for fifty 



bates' other tribes. 133 

years, and that they were well descended all that time, having had a 
Son of Comet (155), and other blood before the cross of Waterloo 
(2816)." Of these Mr. Bates bred, from 1S32 to 1849, inclusive, 
from the original cow, twelve females. 

Of the Red Rose tribe, springing from the original one he bought 
of Mr. Hustler, (descended from the "American Cow," previously 
mentioned,) from the year 1821 to the year 1833, inclusive, he bred 
eleven females. Taking a premium with the 13th of the. tribe, calved 
in 1S34 (the 12th in descent from the original, Red Rose 1st), at the 
Cambridge Exhibition, she was afterwards called Cambridge Rose, 
and the successive heifers of the Red Rose family were called Cam- 
bridge Rose down to the year 1849, inclusive, of which there were 
seven in number, making eighteen of the entire number of females 
descended from the original cow. 

Of the Wild Eyes tribe, Mr. Parrington, of the Middlesbro' farm, 
near Stockton, on the river Tees, a good Short-horn breeder, sold 
his herd (Mr. Bell says in the year 1831, but this must be a mistake, 
as the birth of the calf which Mr. Bates bought there with her pedi- 
gree in the 3d and 5th Vols. E. H. B., is dated in 1832), and Mr. 
Bates bought a roan heifer calf called Wildair ; but after going to his 
farm she obtained the name of Wild Eyes. She was got by Superior 
(1975), dam by Wonderful (700), etc. (This cow has, by some, been 
confounded with the famous cow Wildair, bred by Robert Colling, 
but not so, being of altogether different descent from her.) The 
full pedigree of the tribe is recorded in the cow Wild Eyes 26th, 
imported by Mr. Cochrane, of Canada, Vol. 9, p. 1008, A. H. B. Of 
this tribe Mr. Bates bred from his first calf bought of Mr. Parrington 
from the years 1835 to 1849, inclusive, twenty-nine females. 

Of the Foggathorpe tribe, Mr. Bates bought the original cow Fog- 
gathorpe, of Mr. Edwards, Market Weighton. She was then ten 
years old, got by Marlbro' (1189), out of Rosebud, by Ebor (997), 
etc. Her full pedigree is in Vol. 5, p. 386, E. H. B. From her 
descended five females, bred by Mr. Bates from the year 1840 to 
1850, inclusive — the last calf being dropped after Mr. B.'s death. 

Many bulls, and possibly some females, were sold from these tribes, 
but no females from the Duchess and Oxfords, during the years 
that Mr. Bates was breeding them. Of the latter two families we 
have seen no account in other hands previous to his decease. The 
females were all bred to Mr. Bates' Duchess and Oxford bulls, with 
few exceptions, and the exceptions possessed much of their blood. 



134 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 



Colors of the Bates Herds. 

It may be of some interest to know the prevailing colors attached 
to the various tribes of Mr. Bates' breeding; not that we deem any 
particular color or shades, or admixtures of color, from deep red to 
pure white, objectionable — all being equally legitimate in Short-horn 
blood — but there was more uniformity in the colors of Mr. Bates' 
herd probably than in any other large one of his time. 

To trace back the colors of the ancestry of Duchess ist, by Comet : 
The original one of the tribe — the Stanwick Cow — was a yellowish 
red roan ; her sire, J. Brown's red bull, of course, was red in color. 
What was the color of her daughter, by Hubback (he was yellow-red 
and white), we are not informed ; but the granddaughter, Duchess, 
by Daisy bull (his color not given), was red roan, with some patches 
of white intermixed. Of the other daughter, by Favorite (he was 
roan), we have no information ; but her daughter, Bates' Duchess 
i st, by Comet (he was light roan), was red and white, the red largely 
predominating, The bulls, Ketton ist, 2d and 3d, which Mr. Bates 
used for the next seven years in the Duchess breeding, were mostly 
red, with some white. Marske (418), the next bull, was roan. The 
next bull, Cleveland, was red and white. Young Marske, red and 
white. The Earl, yellow-red, some white. The 2d and 3d Earls, 
both red and white; 2d Hubback, yellow-red and white. These 
were the bulls used down to the year 1832, when Belvedere was 
brought into the herd. All the Duchesses descended from these 
bulls down to the 32d, inclusive, were red and white (the red largely 
predominating over the white), excepting the 12th, red, and 19th, 
which latter was yellow-red. 

Belvedere was yellow-roan in color. Six of his Duchess heifers 
were roan ; three red and white, and one red ; the only Duchess 
heifer calf got by Gambier (red) was red also ; the only one got by 
Norfolk (roan) was, also roan. Short Tail (red and white) got five 
red and white, and one red, heifers. Duke of Northumberland (red 
roan) got the first and only pure white heifer ever bred by Mr. Bates 
of the Duchess family, and another roan heifer. Cleveland Lad 
(red roan) got one Duchess heifer, roan. Holkar (deep red with 
little white) got one Duchess heifer, red and white; 2d Cleveland 
Lad (roan) got one red, one red and white, and one roan Duchess 
heifer; 2d Duke of Northumberland (red and white) got but one 
Duchess heifer, red and white ; 4th Duke of Northumberland (red 



COLORS OF THE BATES HERDS. 135 

and white) got two red heifers. Lord Harrington (red and white) 
got one Duchess heifer, red ; 2d Duke of Oxford (roan) got two 
roans, one red roan, one red and white, and one red heifer, the last 
one finishing up all the Duchesses of Mr. Bates' breeding. 

Matchem Cow, the original dam of the Oxford tribe, it will be 
recollected was white, and from her came the lighter colors which fol- 
lowed in her progeny, all of her seven calves, after coming into Mr. 
Bates' possession, being roans, and red roans. Only one of the heifers 
of this tribe was white. She was Oxford 3d, by Duke of Northum- 
berland (red roan), out of Oxford Premium Cow, roan; another of 
them was red and white, by the same bull, and out of the same cow ; 
another was red and white, and all the others roan. 

Of the Waterloo tribe, four were roans, four red, three red and 
white, and one yellow-red and white. 

Of the Red Roses, nine were red and white, and two roan, and of 
their successors, the Cambridge Roses, three were roans, one white, 
one red and white, and one red. 

Of the Wild Eyes, seventeen were roan, two red, six red and white, 
one yellow-red and white, and two white. 

Of the Foggathorpes, the original dam was roan, and of the pro- 
duce one was white, the next one red and white, and the remaining 
three roan. 

It will thus be seen that of all Mr. Bates' chosen tribes the red and 
white largely prevailed in his Duchess and Red Roses; the roans in 
the others, and the whites were seldom found in either. We draw no 
inferences either of partiality or prejudice which Mr. Bates had'-in 
the way of colors, only stating the fact as matter of history. To the 
present day red, and red and white, prevail in the Duchess, and red 
and white, and roans prevail in the Oxfords, with now and then a 
rare exception of white in either tribe, while the other tribes have 
been so widely scattered and crossed by other and divers bulls, that 
we can scarcely keep track of their colors as having any fixed 
peculiarity. 

It may be asked, Was Mr. Bates successful in winning prizes on his 
stock at the various exhibitions of Short-horns held in England 
during the time of his breeding ? 

As we find among his numerous communications on that subject, 
he was, as a rule with himself, opposed to prize exhibitions of his 
stock at the various cattle shows, for the reason, as he remarked, 
that there were few men among the judges usually appointed on 
these occasions, fit for the dutv. He once remarked that "there 



136 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

were a hundred men fit for a Prime Minister where there was one 
competent to act as a proper judge of Short-horns." He did occa- 
sionally exhibit, however, and won more or less first prizes ; but in 
some cases afterwards, insisted that his inferior beasts did the win- 
ning, while his best ones were overlooked — one of his crotchets, 
possibly. He only exhibited his stock on a few occasions, and those, 
in time, a good way apart, except in the years of " The Royal " in 
1839, '40 and '41, when he was highly successful, mainly in his 
Duchess and Oxford animals. 

During his whole cattle breeding career Mr. Bates bought, bred 
and sold, many other good Short-horns, with an eye no doubt to 
profit, for we cannot well conceive his philanthropy, except in his 
Duchess tribe, to extend so far as not to turn his labors to the best 
advantage, while it is quite certain that in the long-continued breed- 
ing of his Duchess tribe, other than in the bulls he sold, he played a 
losing game in a financial way, and won only on the posthumous 
fame with which his name will long be remembered. 

One important item connected with Mr. Bates' success as a breeder 
should not be omitted. Instead of turning his stock over to the 
exclusive care of herdsmen, as is the practice of many Short-horn 
breeders, he looked carefully over them himself — although he always 
had one or more herdsmen to do his bidding — -personally saw to all 
their wants, and knew every small particular relating to them. He 
loved his cattle, and almost made companions of them. They would 
follow him all around the fields and yards when he went in to look at 
them. He would fondle them lovingly, talk to and familiarly pat 
and caress them, while they in return would rub their heads along 
his body, legs, and arms, lick his hands, and playfully chew the 
skirts of his coat. So affectionately would they hang about him 
while he was among them that his herdsmen could not drive them. 
On one such occasion his cowman not being able to get the cattle 
away from Mr. Bates, and getting quite irritated, exclaimed: "I 
wish you'd keep out aft' way. You do fa' mair ill than good, for 
they won't leave you, and there's no driving them."* 

Mr. Bates had another peculiarity which accounted for his usually 
having a superfluous number of bulls on hand which he did not use, 
or but seldom. He would neither sell, nor let bulls, except to parties 
who had first class cows to put to them, remarking that the bulls 
would do him no justice when bred to inferior cows.- " One day Mr. 

* Bell's History. 



COLORS OF THE BATES HERDS. 1 37 

Wetherell selected two of his bulls at Kirkleavington, which Mr. 
Bates said he would sell him. Mr. Bates inquired about the herd 
into which he, Wetherell, proposed to send the bulls. The latter 
asked, in reply, ' of what consequence is that, so long as you get the 
money for them?' Mr. Bates rejoined, i he would not sell any man a 
bull unless he knew the herd to which he was going, for if the cross did 
not answer, all the blame would be attributed to the bull.' Mr. Weth- 
erell, on leaving, could not refrain from expressing his opinion in 
strong terms in regard to Mr. Bates for refusing to sell his cattle at 
high prices, so long as he got paid for them."* There have been 
few breeders, we fancy, so fastidious. When a good bargain is offered 
for a beast they wish to sell, little regard is paid to its destiny. 

Much more might be here related of Mr. Bates and his Short-horn 
career, as we find a great deal written by him, and of him, in sundry 
English magazines and journals, some of which is copied into Mr. 
Bell's history. Another pleasant, gossipy writer, "Druid," whose real 
name was Dixon, now deceased, related much of him in his "Saddle 
and Sirloin," a book containing various desultory information about 
cattle and horse breeders in England within the last thirty years. 
But they would add little to the substantial fund of information which 
Ave have already given, or may yet give, touching the Short-horns and 
their breeders ; and we have no space for repetition of what does not 
immediately concern our history; nor do we wish to overload our 
pages with matter tending to an undue exaltation of Mr. Bates and 
his stock over other breeders and their stocks — equally meritorious in 
their exertions to improve the quality and blood of their herds. 

But, it is time we close with Mr. Bates. His character has been 
sketched, faithfully, as we trust, as a man of unflinching integrity and 
stern honesty of purpose , and if he sometimes indulged in undue 
partialities towards his own, and unjust prejudices towards the stock 
of rival breeders, in which the fallibility of his judgment was exposed, 
we must remember that both he and his herds were also subjected to 
the attacks and criticisms of others, which may have tried his patience 
and vexed his temper. 

In a brief memoir of Mr. Bates, highly creditable to his character, 
in the Farmers Magazine for the year 1850, the writer thus closes: 
"Active in mind, temperate in his habits, nay, I may say abstemious, 
for he tasted no intoxicating liquors for some years before his death, 
and living almost in the open air, he knew little of disease, and seldom, 

* Bell's History. It is not so stated, but we infer that the bulls were not taken. — L. F. A. 



138 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

if ever, consulted a physician. A month before death, however, his 
health began to fail, a disease of the kidneys became painful and 
harassing, and he went to Redcar to try the effects of the sea air, 
but which, so far from removing, seemed only to increase the malady. 
It was sometime before he could be prevailed on to consult a med- 
ical adviser, and when he did he refused the greater part of his 
medicine. 

" He gradually sunk and died on the 26th day of July, 1849, and 
was buried in the church-yard at Kirkleavington. A monument was 
erected to his memory by a few friends and admirers of his exertions 
in stock breeding, with the following inscription : 

THIS MEMORIAL OF 

THOMAS BATES, 

OF KIRKLEAVINGTON, 

ONE OF THE MOST DISTINGUISHED BREEDERS OF SHORT-HORN CATTLE, 

IS RAISED BY A FEW FRIENDS WHO APPRECIATE HIS LABORS 

FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF BRITISH STOCK, 

AND RESPECT HIS CHARACTER, 

BORN 2IST JUNE, 1776 — DIED 26TH JULY, 1849." * 

The Sale of Mr. Bates' Herd and their English Successors. 

Mr. Bates left a will bequeathing a considerable estate principally 
to two or three nephews. The only one of these engaged in agri- 
culture was settled in Germany, and had no time or opportunity of 
attending to a herd, so that it came to be sold on the 9th of May, 
1850. One of the nephews of Mr. Bates, living at Heddon, in North- 
umberland, but then residing in London, who we understand was a 
lawyer, was made his executor, and wound up the estate, a valuable 
portion of which lay in his cattle and other farm stock. There were 
some other difficulties we have learned, arising out of the conditions 
of the will, with a threat by some of the dissatisfied heirs, to throw it 
into chancery. The stock was expensive to keep, and troublesome, 
for one not acquainted with it, to manage. Added to these embar- 
rassments, Short-horn cattle generally were low in price at the time. 
Rival breeders also had their eyes upon them, and hoped to drive 
good bargains at the sale ; and it is stated that Lord Ducie, who, in 
the event, became a considerable purchaser, tried an underhanded 
scheme for a part of it, which, however, the executor detected and 
foiled. The sale had been widely advertised, and as might be sup- 
posed, the final disposition of the herd of such a noted breeder drew 

* Bell's History. 



SALES OF THE BATES HERDS. 139 

a large attendance. The animals were arranged in their several tribes, 
and sold as follows : 

Duchess Tribe. 

4 Cows ,£322 7s. . 

3 Heifers 442 o 

1 Heifer Calf, 162 15 

4 Bulls 625 16 

2 Bull Calves, 7512 

14 .£1627 10 Averaging $581 each. 

Of the Duchess females, Lord Ducie bought Duchess 55th, 5 years 
old, at $551 ; 59th, 2 years old, at $1,050; and 64th, 9 months old, 
at $813. 

Of the bulls, the same gentleman bought 4th Duke of York (10 167), 
3 years old, at $1,050. 

Grand Duke (10284), 2 years old, was also sold for $1,076. 

The other animals of the tribe were sold at lesser prices to different 
English breeders. 

Oxford Tribe. 

4 Cows, £288 15s. 

2 Heifers 95 n 

4 Heifer Calves, 303 9 

3 Bulls, 206 17 

13 ;£Sg4 12 Averaging $313 each. 

Of the Oxford females, Col. Lewis G. Morris of Mt. Fordham, 
N. Y., U. S. A., bought Oxford 5th, 5 years old, got by Duke of 
Northumberland (1940), for $370; also Oxford 10th, 16 months old 
(daughter to Oxford 5th), by 3d Duke of York (10166), for $267; 
and Mr. Noel J. Becar, of New York, bought Oxford 13th, a 4 months' 
calf of Oxford 5th, by 3d Duke of York (10166), for $330. These 
cows came to America, and proved successful breeders. No other 
animals at the sale were then purchased by any Americans. 

Waterloo Tribe. 

2 Cows, ;£ioi 17s. 

3 Heifers 1S0 12 

1 Heifer Calf, 74 n 

6 £351 00 Averaging $297.50 each. 



140 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 



Cambridge Rose Tribe. 

i Cow, £a1 5s. 

I Heifer, 73 io 

1 Heifer Calf, 26 5 

3 ^147 o Averaging $245 each. 

Wild Eyes Tribe. 

9 Cows, .£328 13s. 

7 Heifers, 430 10 

2 Heifer Calves, 64 1 

4 Bulls, 254 2 

3 Bull Calves, 126 o 

25 ;£i203 6 Averaging $241 each. 

Of the bulls of the Wild Eyes tribe, Balco (9918) [by 4th Duke 
of York (16167)], then 15 months old, sold for $813. He was after- 
wards purchased by Col. Morris, of Mt. Fordham, N. Y., and brought 
to America. 

Foggathorpe Tribe. 

2 Cows £ 74 us. 

1 Heifer Calf, 31 10 

4 Bulls, 222 12 

7 ^328 13 Averaging $235 each. 

Total amount of sale, 68 animals, ^4,558 is —$22,240 — average $327 each. 

What a paltry price compared with what their descendants would 
bring now, in 1872 ! 

For a herd sustaining the reputation which it had acquired under 
the long-continued management of Mr. Bates, aside from the adverse 
circumstances which we have related, the above prices will be con- 
sidered remarkably low ; but it must be remembered that all agricul- 
tural values were at a low ebb in England, and cattle of the better 
breeds had sunk to their minimum depression. Mr. Bates' executor 
was also but little practiced in cattle management, and the herd had 
been measurably neglected, both in care and appearance, from what 
they would have been had their old master been living. Yet most 
of the animals fell into good hands, who well appreciated their value, 
and in the space of a few years rose to a reputation, and brought 
prices never before reached in England. 



LORD DUCIE S BREEDING AND SALES. 141 



Lord Ducie's Breeding and Sales. 

While we have the herd of Mr. Bates in hand we will trace its history 
to a recent day, when a part of it fell into the hands of his Ame?-ican 
successors. We have seen that Earl Ducie bought three of the 
female Duchesses and one of the bulls at the Bates sale. He also 
bought two of the female Oxfords — 6th, 4 years old, and nth, 9 
months old, at $656 each. These animals he added to a herd he 
had already established, of superior quality and excellence. He was 
a gentleman of liberal spirit in expenditure ; enthusiastic in his love 
of good stock ; and determined to maintain a herd of Short-horns 
equal to, if not the superior of, any other in England. He purchased 
good things at liberal prices, never balking at the money value when 
the creature suited him. His health, however, was delicate, and he 
lived but about two years after the sale of Mr. Bates' herd. Mean- 
time he had bred his stock with marked judgment and success ; the 
value of good Short-horns had rapidly advanced, and the reputation 
of the "Bates" stock — particularly the Duchess and Oxfords — had 
increased in public favor, so that when in the month of August, 1852, 
Lord Ducie's executors made a sale of his entire herd, the occasion 
brought together an array of breeders such as had not been gathered 
in England on any like occasion since the days of the Collings. The 
sale had been for some time announced, and several American gen- 
tlemen crossed the ocean for the purpose of attending it and making 
purchases, expecting to compete with the elite of England's breeders 
if successful in effecting them. Nor were the Americans mistaken. 
They did meet the English breeders on their own soil, outbid and 
outpurchased them of some of the best animals in the herd, as 
follows : 

Mr. Samuel Thorne, of Thorndale, New York, bought the cows 
Duchess 59th, by 2d Duke of Oxford (9046), 5 years old, for $1,837 ; 
Duchess 64th, by 2d Duke of Oxford (9046), 4 years old, for $3,150; 
Duchess 68th, by Duke of Gloster (11382), 1 year old, for $1,575. 

(Duchess 68th was killed by the falling of a mast on shipboard, 
while on her passage to America.) 

Messrs. L. G. Morris and N. J. Becar, of New York, purchased the 
cow Duchess 66th, 3 years old, for $3,675, and she (Duchess 66th) 
was the only one of the Duchess tribe coming to America which 
left any female descendants now living. These gentlemen also pur- 
chased the bull Duke of Gloster, 2763 (11382), 3 years old, for $3,412. 



142 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

Mr. Thorne also purchased of Mr. Bolden die bull Grand Duke, 
545 (10284), formerly sold at Mr. Bates' sale in 1850, for $5,000, and 
brought him to America with his other purchases. A few years after- 
wards Grand Duke becoming disabled, Mr. Thorne also purchased 
2d Grand Duke, 2181 (112961), bred by Earl Ducie, at the price of 
$5,000, and brought him to America. 

Mr. George Vail, of Troy, N. Y., and Gen. George Cadwallader, 
of Philadelphia, purchased the bull 4th Duke of York (10167), 6 
years old, at $2,625, but ne unfortunately died on his passage across 
the ocean. 

The other animals of the Duchess, Oxford, and other tribes, passed 
into the hands of various English breeders. Several of the descend- 
ants of the Duchess have since come to America ; among them one 
bull, Duke of Airdrie, 9798 (12730), and his dam, Duchess of Atholl, 
by 2d Duke of Oxford (9046), in the hands of Mr. R. A. Alexander, 
in Kentucky, and three heifers, Duchess 97th, 101st and 103d, to Mr. 
M. H. Cochrane, Compton, Province of Quebec, (Lower Canada.) 
Of the Oxfords, one, Grand Duke of Oxford, 3988 (16 184), was 
imported by Mr. Sheldon, Geneva, N. Y. Of the Duchess and Oxford 
females, there are now in England and America, some scores in num- 
ber. The females are held in but few hands in England, and a less 
number in the United States and Canada. The bulls, however, have 
been widely scattered, and sold at prices commensurate with the 
values which breeders partial to their blood place upon their merits. 

The sale of Lord Ducie's herd was the highest in price which had 
taken place since that of Charles Colling in the year 18 10, but rela- 
tively to agricultural prices in England at the two periods (Colling's 
at a time of great inflation, and Lord Ducie's at a time of compara- 
tive depression), the latter sale was by far the highest, averaging $700 
per head for 49 cows, heifers, and heifer calves, and $959 each for 13 
bulls, making for the 62 animals the round sum of $46,809, an aver- 
age of $723 each, within a fraction. 

To follow in detail the result, separately, of the Duchess and 
Oxford tribes, at Lord Ducie's sale, we give a synopsis of each : 
8 Duchesses (females) sold for ^3,212 10s. 5d., averaging nearly 
$2,008 each; 4 Oxfords (females) sold for ^876 15s., averaging 
nearly $1,096 each. 

In addition to these were the before named Duke of Gloster, at 
^682 10s. ($3,412), and 4th Duke of York, at ^523 ($2,625), and 
5th Duke of Oxford to Lord Feversham, at ^315 or $1,575. 



LORD DUCIE S BREEDING AND SALES. 143 

Mr. Bell tells a story of Lord Ducie after the purchase of 4th 
Duke of York (10167), at the Bates sale, which is so characteristic 
of the monopolizing spirit of some of the English Short-horn breed- 
ers, that we suppose it to be true. " He sent his agent out to buy the 
bull 3d Duke of York (10166) (a Duchess bull), then in other hands, 
that he might slaughter him [Bates fashion], and prevent his blood 
being used by other breeders, in which he succeeded, and had the 
bull remorselessly killed, thus supposing he had secured to himself, 
in his own 4th Duke of York, the only remaining one of the blood ; 
but meeting Mr. Tanqueray shortly after, in London, his Lordship 
asked him what he was doing in the Short-horn line ; to which Tan- 
queray replied, 'I have just come into possession of 5th Duke of 
York (10168).' With evident chagrin Ducie answered, 'I had lost 
sight of him.' " So his barbarity, as well as selfishness, in sacrificing 
a noble beast was thus signally punished. 



144 HISTORY OF THE SHORT- HORNS. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Mr. Bates' Influence on the Short-horns — Did he Improve 

Them ? 

That a sagacious, intelligent man, devoting nearly sixty years of 
an active life to the breeding of a favorite race of animals, divested 
of family cares, enthusiastically attached to his stock, selecting his 
original herd from the best blood of the country, and concentrating 
all the energies and skill at his command to their highest develop- 
ment, should not succeed in improving their qualities to a greater or 
less extent, would prove him to be a dullard, or that he worked upon 
a race of animals incapable of any further development. Neither of 
these conclusions will be credited to the labors of Mr. Bates, or 
charged to the qualities of so fine a race of cattle as the Short-horns. 
During his life no one had greater opportunities to know the origin 
and lineage of every noted Short-horn in England. In his younger 
days he was contemporary, acquainted with, and on friendly terms 
with most, if not all, the substantial and reputable breeders of the 
country, and after the Collings had retired no one probably knew the 
pedigrees of the earlier herds of the country any better than, if so 
well as, himself. In his own private copy of the first volume of 
Coates' Herd Book, he made extended notes of the ancestry of many 
of the earlier cattle therein recorded, beyond what the printed pedi- 
grees contained, and these notes, of the bulls, we have had the privi- 
lege of copying into our own. At the close of his life he probably 
knew more about Short-horns than any man in England. He had 
seen Hubback, Foljambe, Bolingbroke, Favorite, and Comet, and 
many of their contemporaries, male and female, together with the other 
most noted bulls and cows of his time. He had been intimate 
with the herds of the Maynards, the Wetherells, the Booths, the 
Wrights, the Charges, the Masons, the Hutchinsons, as well as their 
many younger contemporaries. He knew the superior as well as 
inferior qualities which their herds possessed. Probably no man in 
England was a better judge of cattle than he, and at his death he left 



THE BATES IMPROVEMENT. 145 

a herd which challenged the admiration of numerous Short-horn 
breeders on both sides the Atlantic — and that admiration has not 
abated with the increasing generations of their progeny. In this 
assertion we know we are trenching on delicate, if not debatable 
ground. Yet the prices which they have brought for many years 
past, and still bring, bear indisputable evidence of the fact, whether 
those prices are based on sound judgment, or fancy only. We do 
not assert that for general practical uses the Bates stock are really 
better than very many animals of more miscellaneously, yet well-bred 
herds, but in their deeply concentrated blood giving it the power of 
transmission into others, they are much admired and widely sought. 

On Mr. Bates' death the animals of his most cherished blood were 
quickly appropriated by a few who had long been partial to their 
merits, and wielded purses to command their possession. ^200 to 
^300 ($1,000 to $1,500) would then buy any Short-horn in England. 
Three years afterwards it cost jQ6oo to ^1,000 ($3,000 to $5,000) as 
we have seen, to buy the same animals, or their produce, in close 
competition between Englishmen and Americans, and prices both in 
England and America have since ranged even higher for both bulls 
and cows of favorite strains of their blood. 

The above remarks are made with no invidious reflection upon 
the valuable stock of other breeders, or their herds. There are many 
herds, as well as individual animals, both in England and America, 
of the highest excellence; but with the exception of the Booths, 
there has been no herd of Short-horns so closely interbred as that of 
Mr. Bates, and containing so strong and deep a concentration of 
blood, and the bulls from which have stamped more strikingly their 
several individualities upon stranger herds. Not that these cattle in 
themselves shew such marked superiority over many others, but from 
their long compacted genealogy and careful breeding, they impress 
their own characteristics upon their progeny in a greater degree than 
others which, through their divergent crosses, have not been so com- 
pactly bred. Hence their highly estimated value, as certified by the 
auctioneer's hammer, as well as in private sales. Let the public, if 
they will, call men fools, or enthusiasts, who pay those exhorbitant 
prices, but when we see veteran breeders, life-long in the pursuit, as 
well as those of less experience, doing so, it may well be supposed 
there is something in it beyond mere assumption, caprice or fancy. 
Who in England ever produced such bulls with their in-and-in bred 
crosses as, early in this century, did Charles Colling in Comet (155), 
by Favorite ; thirty years later, as did Bates in Duke of Northumber- 
IO 



146 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

land (1940), by Belvedere; or, still thirty years afterwards, as did 
Richard Booth, culminating in Commander-in-Chief (21452), by 
Velasco— and all of them with cows to match ? And yet, with all 
this emphasis, we do not say that there have not since been equally 
good bulls as these, and cows also, bred in both England and Amer- 
ica; but they have not yet achieved the notoriety of the others, 
although a future day may prove that some of them do excel even 
Comet, Duke of Northumberland, or Commander-in-Chief. 

The critical reader may here make a note, and accuse us of writ- 
ing up the Bates and Booth blood of cattle. Not a word of it. We 
only state facts that cannot and will not, on mature examination, be 
contradicted. Almost every herd of note, in either England or 
America, has more or less of these bloods in their veins. In no well- 
bred Short-horns whatever can be traced so many crosses back as 
into the bull Favorite (252), bred by Charles Colling. His blood was 
the foundation of the bulls of the elder Booth, afterwards of Bates, 
in both bulls and cows, and also many other of the contemporary, 
and through them of numerous later English and American herds. 
Let the pedigrees be traced and the fact will so prove. 

If the brothers Colling, one in his thirty, and the other in his forty 
years' career of breeding, were pronounced by their contemporaries 
to be "improvers," why not the elder Booths and Bates, Mason, Lord 
Althorpe, and numerous others of the elder, and their younger fol- 
lowers, making their original selections from the Colling bloods, and 
appropriating the best cows they could secure from others, and breed- 
ing them with skill, adhering almost throughout to the original blood, 
and their better qualities have been improvers also ? Charles Colling 
may not, during his life -time, have bred a finer one than the Stanwick 
Cow (his original Duchess), or the " beautiful Lady Maynard " — as 
he himself acknowledged — which he bought of his elder contempo- 
rary, Mr. Maynard ; but he had the sagacity to keep their blood as 
compact as possible by breeding in-and-in their progeny to a depth 
and endurance which stamped it almost in perpetuity through the 
successive bulls and heifers proceeding from them, thus transmitting 
their qualities down to present generations. The elder Booth copy- 
ing from him, and procuring Colling bulls, which he used upon cows 
of his own selection for their superior merits from other breeders, did 
the same, and so following, did Bates, only that the latter had the 
°-ood fortune to obtain some of the Colling cows, which Booth did 
not ; the latter, as we have already stated, selecting his original cows 
from neighboring herds, looking only to their good qualities, without 



STYLES OF BATES AND BOOTH CATTLE. 147 

any regard to pedigree, other than the fact that they were true Short- 
horns. Thus his pedigrees ending in such cows are shorter than 
those of the Bates' Duchesses, as well as of several other breeders 
whose pedigrees run back to the earliest Short-horn records. 

Still, with all their excellencies of quality, the styles of the Booth, 
and Bates, and some other herds have been and are still different in 
some of their valuable as well as fancy points. Each one adopted 
his own standard of excellence, each strived to attain it, and both of 
them succeeded to a greater or less extent. We do not propose to 
institute a comparison of their qualities. Rivalries and competitions 
ran high between the elder Booths, Bates, Mason, and other of the elder 
breeders while living, and it is not impossible that equal rivalries and 
competition may now exist among the admirers of their different 
bloods, as well as in the bloods of other distinguished breeders. It 
is a noble, a praiseworthy competition, and so long as honorably con- 
ducted, altogether commendable. 



148 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 



CHAPTER VII. 

The Elder Short-horn Breeders Contemporary with the 
collings and their immediate successors. 

Of the elder breeders, we regret that no clear history of their 
labors reach us except incidentally, as we find occasional references 
to them in the scanty agricultural publications of their day, and trace 
the pedigrees of their stocks in the earlier volumes of the English 
Herd Books. John Maynard was the senior of the Collings in breed- 
ing, Charles having bought in 1786 or '7, his cows Lady Maynard, 
and her daughter, Young Strawberry, from Maynard's herd. There 
were the Blackets, the Aislabies, the Milbanks, the Pennymans, the 
elder Stevenson, and others, anterior to the Collings, whose names 
have been incidentally mentioned in our previous pages, who bred 
famous cattle, but of them we have been able to glean few particu- 
lars. The first volume of the English Herd Book, published in 1822, 
contained the names of but about one hundred and forty breeders, 
including the Collings, Booths, and Thomas Bates. 

Among the immediate contemporaries of the Collings, and the elder 
Booth, was Christopher Mason, of Chilton. He bred largely, pos- 
sessed a valuable herd, purchased and used bulls from the Collings, 
and many noted animals of the present day are found descended 
from his stock. He was among the first class breeders of his time, 
and made a large, if not final sale of his herd in the year 1829, of 
which Lord Althorpe (afterwards Earl Spencer) purchased quite a 
number. The larger breeders, whose names are in the first Herd 
Book, aside from those already named, were Lord Althorpe, of 
Wiseton; Messrs. Alderson, of Ferrybridge; Bower, of Welham ; Cham- 
pion, of Blythe ; Charge, of Newton ; Coates (first editor of the Herd 
Book), of Carlton ; Compton, of Northumberland ; Curwen, of Cum- 
berland ; Earnshaw, of Ferrybridge; Gibson, of Northumberland; 
Hutchinson, of Stockton; Hustler, of Acklam; Ibetson, of Denton 

Park; William Jobling, of ; Anthony Maynard, of Morton-le- 

Moor; J. C. Maynard, of Harlsey; Col.. Mellish, of ; Ostler, of 



THE EARLIER AND LATER BREEDERS. 149 

Audley ; Parker, of Sutton House ; Parrington, of Middlesbro' ; Rob- 
ertson, of Ladykirk; Rudd, of Marton ; Seymour, of Woodhouse 
Close ; Simpson, of Babworth ; Smith, of Dishley ; Spoors, of North- 
umberland ; Sir Henry Vane Tempest, of Wynyard; Thomas, of 

Chesterfield; Col. Trotter, of ; Wiles, of Bead; Wetherell, of 

Kirkby-Malery; Whitaker, of Greenholme ; White, of Loughborough; 
Wright, of , and Wright, of Cleasby. 

Aside from the above list appear the names of many small breed- 
ers, some with only one, and others representing only a few pedigrees 
each. 

All the breeders above named reared and sold animals of repute, 
and many of them of marked distinction. We can name but a few 
of the sales that were made and the prices their animals brought ; 
and even those we can name are found only in fragmentary reports 
given in the agricultural journals of the time, or since recorded on 
the recollection of contemporary breeders. Some of the older ones 
of these breeders sold cattle to the Collings ; other younger ones 
obtained some of their animals from the Collings, either directly, by 
purchase, or indirectly by hiring their bulls. 

At the time of Lord Althorpe' s death, in 184- his herd numbered 
about one hundred and fifty. His legatee, Mr. Hall (the cattle hav- 
ing been left to him), soon afterwards disposed of them at public sale. 
One bull brought 400 guineas ($2,100), another 370 guineas ($1,942), 
and some of the cows 200 guineas ($1,050) each. 

Lord Althorpe (afterwards Earl Spencer) was a liberal breeder, 
and enthusiastic in his attachment to the Short-horns. He many 
years kept, and had at his decease, probably the largest herd in Eng- 
land. He was a bachelor, or if married, left no children, and his 
estate and title descended to his brother, who had no taste for cattle, 
which is probably the reason why the elder brother gave his herd to 
Mr. Hall. Lord Althorpe corresponded frequently with Mr. Bates, 
visited him at his home and bought some cattle of him. With how 
much skill his Lordship bred his animals we are not informed, although 
he paid much personal attention to them during the leisure time he 
could withdraw from state affairs. As we find many excellent Short- 
horns which trace their pedigrees into his herd, there can be little 
doubt that he bred many first class animals. 

Mr. Jonas Whitaker, of Greenholme, Otley, although a large cotton 
manufacturer, was an extensive breeder, and had many fine cattle. 
All, or nearly all, of our American Col. Powel's importations in the year 
1824, and afterwards, came from Mr. Whitaker 's favorite tribes, together 



150 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

with many others afterwards purchased by American breeders and 
brought to the United States. 

Sometime after the sale of Robert Colling, Col. Trotter, who was a 
purchaser there, sold three cows from that stock to Col. Mellish for 
^2,2 10, equal to $3,683 each. Col. Mellish afterwards sold one of 
them to Major Bower, of Welham, for 800 guineas ($4,200). 

In view of such authenticated sales we can have no doubt that 
many of the successors of the Collings, the elder Booth, Maynard, 
Wetherell, and their contemporaries, sold many choice animals at 
extraordinary prices, showing the right estimate still maintained of 
their excellence. We regret that we have been confined to such a 
limited early account of individual sales. Yet if we had them it 
would hardly be necessary to multiply the many decided evidences 
of Short-horn values. 

Succeeding the efforts of the Collings and their contemporary 
breeders, the merits of the Short-horns gained widely in public esti- 
mation and popularity, not only in the counties comprising their 
ancient homes, but they were eagerly sought by the larger land-owners 
among the nobility and gentry of neighboring, and even distant coun- 
ties, as well as tenant farmers — the former to encourage the improve- 
ment of the breeds of neat cattle on their estates at large, and the 
latter to improve and render more valuable their own individual 
herds as the most profitable stock they could rear. Thus the number 
of pure-bred animals increased in a more rapid ratio than ever 
before, while their crosses upon the common and baser breeds multi- 
plied indefinitely, both as grazing and dairy stock. 

It would be an exhausting, if not impossible labor, to enumerate 
all the various breeders of established Short-horn blood in Great 
Britain since the days of the Collings. The names of the most prom- 
inent among their contemporaries, and immediate successors, have 
already been given, and for those who have since entered the ranks 
the pages of the English Herd Book must be examined. But to 
show their extent, these breeders can be numbered by many hundreds, 
among them the Royal household, every order of nobility — titled 
women as well — and descending in rank through every intermediate 
class of ownership to the well-to-do tenant farmer. Not that we 
ignore other valuable breeds of cattle which, from time immemorial, 
have existed in Britain and elsewhere, and have maintained and 
still maintain their advocates and breeders ; nor do we claim a univer- 
sal favor towards the Short-horns beyond all others ; but they have 
developed such prominent qualities of excellence as to render them 



DISTRIBUTION OF THE SHORT- HORNS. 1 5 I 

beyond any other breed, both in pure bloods and grades, the now 
most widely predominating stock of any distinct race of cattle. 
Never were the prices paid for choice animals in England so high 
as now, and never were animals of choice and fashionable blood 
so eagerly sought. For many years past they have, in large numbers, 
been exported to the neighboring continent and to various English 
colonies — in the latter, mostly to Australia and the Canadas — while 
men in the United States for fifty years past have purchased and brought 
out hundreds of their choicest breeding, and still are annually draw- 
ing from the British herds their most cherished blood. Strangest of 
all, English breeders are now almost annually sending to America to 
purchase and take home to the land of their ancestors some of the 
descendants of the cattle which years ago they parted with, declaring 
in such instances, a positive improvement over many of their own 
animals which they kept at home. And this improvement in the 
American cattle they consider derived from our fresher pastures and 
the skill with which they have been bred. Such a concession may 
be considered no mean tribute to the enterprise of our American 
breeders ! Thus, for the present, we take leave of the Short-horns 
in England, and proceed to their successors in America. 



PART SECOND. 



HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

The Short-horns in America. 

The date of the first arrival of purely-bred Short-horns in the 
United States is uncertain. Tradition has informed us that a few 
Short-horn cattle were introduced here from England soon after the 
Revolutionary War, which separated the American colonies from the 
mother country, the treaty of peace between the two countries being 
made in the year 1783. We have no recorded evidence of the fact 
from any printed chronicles of the time, although men not long ago 
living, and some still alive, have stated on what they believed good 
authority, that such was the fact. The best evidence at our command 
will be given, and if it be not such as will commend the purity of the 
blood of these animals to breeders of good Short-horns at the present 
day, they will at least have the benefit of what knowledge exists, and 
draw their conclusions as best they may from the material which we 
have gathered. 

We have also heard that about the year 1775 a Mr. Heaton 
emigrated from England to New York, then a provincial city, and 
followed for some years the occupation of a butcher. It is also said 
that in 1791 he returned to England and brought back with him sev- 
eral Short-horn cattle from the herd of George Culley, a cattle breeder 
living near Grindon, in Northumberland. He was probably induced 
to this enterprise by knowing the deficiencies of the common cattle 
then bred in the United States, which, in his mind, and truly so, much 
needed the improvement which the Short-horn blood could impart to 
them. What became of the cattle, neither tradition nor written his- 
tory of the day give us an account ; but it may be supposed that the 

155 



156 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

males and females were bred to some extent among themselves, and 
that the bulls were also bred upon the common cows in the places 
where they were kept. In 1796 it is further stated that Mr. Heaton 
went again to England and brought out a bull and cow which he 
bought from one of the brothers Colling and took them to his farm in 
Westchester county, N. Y., where he then resided. It may be sup- 
posed that the Short-horns which he had previously imported had 
been taken to that place also, but of the fact we have no verified 
account. 

What finally became of the animals and their produce which Heaton 
brought out, nothing definite is known, only that some superior cattle 
were many years kept and known in Westchester county, N. Y., after 
the present century came in, but no pedigrees of them have been 
traced except in one or two instances through "Brisbane's bull," 
which was purchased of Mr. Heaton by the late Mr. James Brisbane, 
of Batavia, N. Y., and brought there by him in the early years of this 
century. The bull left much valuable stock in the vicinity of Batavia, 
and was supposed to be a thorough-bred Short-horn. Of the Heaton 
stock, retained in the vicinity of New York, nothing further is cer- 
tainly known. It is altogether probable that the people of that 
vicinity knowing little of either breeds, or blood cattle in those days, 
let the stock "run out," and they became lost in the common herds 
of the country. 

The Gough (or Goff) and Miller Importations of the last 

Century. 

We now enter on debatable ground — a subject which has elicited 
more controversy touching the blood of early American Short-horns 
than any other which has arisen in this country for the past fifty 
years by those interested, and the animals of whose herds have been 
more directly or remotely related to them. We do not suppose that 
anything we may introduce by way of testimony will decide the 
question to any exact degree of certainty. Yet the facts connected 
with them are important to be known by all Short-horn breeders who 
take an interest in the matter; and from them every reader may draw 
his own conclusions. We do not propose to settle any question of 
blood by what we may submit, but simply to relate history so far as 
we have been able, by diligent search, to ascertain it. 

There have been several published accounts of these early impor- 
tations, differing somewhat in dale, which is of little' consequence ; 



GOUGII AND MILLER IMPORTATIONS. 157 

but, of more consequence, differing in the breeds of the cattle so 
imported. As they took place nearly ninety, and down to about 
eighty years ago, the accounts given of them were for many years 
only of oral transmission, and perhaps of somewhat imperfect recol- 
lection by the several parties relating them. We find these accounts 
recorded in print only after the years 1835 to 1840, at a lapse of 
nearly or quite half a century after the importations occurred, when 
probably the importers of the original stock as well as some of the 
owners of a portion of the descendants of the originals had passed 
off the stage of action. Yet some of their survivors, venerable in 
age and character in Kentucky and Ohio, still remain, whose recol- 
lections run into the earlier years of the present century, and from 
these several accounts our history is drawn. 

According to these accounts in the year 1.783 a Mr. Miller, of Vir- 
ginia, in connection with Mr. Gough, made an importation — into 
Baltimore (probably) — of some English cattle, of two different breeds. 
We infer that the cattle were taken into the fine grazing section of 
Northern Virginia, in the valley of the South branch of the Potomac 
river, where they were bred together, as well as the bulls bred to the 
native cows of the country. They were designated, one as the 
"Milk breed," the other as the "Beef breed." The former were 
described as having short horns, heavy carcasses, compact in shape, 
red, red and white, and roan in color, the cows excellent milkers — in 
all probability, Short-horns. The latter were longer horned, rangy in 
form, fatted well at maturity^ not so smoothly built as the others, and 
the cows producing less milk than the others. These were, prob- 
ably, the old fashioned, unimproved stock, coarser and rougher 
in appearance, but still of the Short-horn race then common in the 
Holderness district of Yorkshire. Sometime afterwards one, or both, 
of the previously named gentlemen — whether in conjunction, or sep- 
arately, is not related — about the years 1790 to 1795, made other 
importations of nearly the same classes of cattle, a part of, or all of 
which, probably went into the South branch valley, or elsewhere not 
far distant from the first importation. We hear nothing of these 
cattle or their descendants as Virginia stock ; but two years after the 
first importation, in the year 17S5, two sons, and a son-in-law (Mr 
Gay) of Mr. Matthew Patton, then a resident of Virginia, took into 
Clark county, Kentucky (as related by Dr. Samuel D. Mentin, still 
living there), one of its fine blue-grass localities, a young bull, and 
several heifers, half-blooded (and they could only have been calves, 
or less than vearlincrs), of their then called " English " cattle. These 



158 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

animals were said to have been purchased of Mr. Gough. It is not 
necessary to further note these animals, as they were but grades, only 
to show the spirit of enterprise among some of the early cattle breed- 
ers of the State, in obtaining better stock than Kentucky then afforded 
for their improvement. 

In 1790, the elder Mr. Patton removed from Virginia to Clark 
county in Kentucky, and took with him a bull and cow directly 
descended from the Gough and Miller importation of the " Milk " 
breed, also some half-blooded cows of both the "Milk" and "Beef" 
breeds. The "Beef" breed were "long-haired, large, coarse, slowly 
coming to maturity, and fattening badly until fully grown, yet tolera- 
ble milkers." The "Milk" breed (of which the bull and cow first 
named were of pure descent) were short-horned, coming early to 
maturity, and fattening kindly. Their milking qualities were extra- 
ordinary. It was not at all uncommon for cows of this breed to give 
thirty-two quarts of milk daily. The Short-horn bull, red in color, 
with white face, rather heavy horns, yet smooth and round in form, 
was called Mars. He is recorded by number 1850, American Herd 
Book. The cow was called Venus, white in color, with red ears, 
small, short horns, turning down. She bred two bull calves to Mars, 
and soon afterwards died. Mars got many calves on the native cows 
in Kentucky, which were said by the old breeders to be both excellent 
milkers and good fattening animals. Mars remained with Mr. Patton 
until the death of the latter in 1803, when the bull was sold to a Mr. 
Peeples in Montgomery county, Ky., in whose possession he died in 
1806. Of the two bulls descended from Mars and Venus, one was 
taken to Jessamine county, Ky., the other to Ohio, probably the 
Scioto valley ; but as all this breed, or breeds, in their various intermix- 
tures after their introduction into Kentucky, were called " Patton 
stock," they became commingled, the shorter horned, and refined 
ones, with the longer horned and coarser ones, and were, for many 
years afterwards, universally known by that name only. 

In the year 1803 Mr. Daniel Harrison, James Patton and James 
Gay, of Clark county, Ky., bought of Mr. Miller, the importer, liv- 
ing in Virginia, a two-year-old bull, descended from a bull and cow 
of his importation. This bull was called Pluto (825 A. H. B.), and 
said to be of the "Milk" breed. He is described as "dark roan or 
red in color, large in size, with small head and neck, light, short horns, 
small-boned, and heavily fleshed." He was bred mostly to "Patton " 
cows, and produced some fine milkers. He was taken to Ohio about 
the year 181 2, and died soon afterwards. 



THE PATTON STOCK. I59 

In the year 1810 Capt. William Smith, of Fayette county, Ky., 
purchased of the before mentioned Mr. Miller, of Virginia, and 
brought to Kentucky a bull called Buzzard, 304 (3254). He was 
coarser, larger, and taller than Pluto, but not so heavy. He was 
bred in different herds many years, and also used by the Society of 
Shakers at Pleasant Hill, Mercer county, Ky., in 1821, and for some 
years afterwards. 

In the year 181 1 the bull Shaker (2193 A. H. B.) was bought of 
Mr. Miller aforesaid, and used some years both by the Pleasant Hill, 
Ky., and Union Village, Ohio, Societies of Shakers. They after- 
wards sold him to Messrs. Welton and Hutchcraft, of Kentucky. 
He was of the "Milk" or Short-horn breed. This account we have 
from Messrs. Micajah Burnett, of the Pleasant Hill, and Peter Boyd, 
of the Union Village Societies, and although they each differ in some 
non-essential items, the identity of the bull is fully recognized. 

These four bulls, viz. : Mars, Pluto, Buzzard, and Shaker, appear 
to have been purely bred from the Gough and Miller importations 
previous to the year 1S10. From these bulls, but not on equally pure 
bred cows of those importations, descended many animals whose 
pedigrees have been recognized and recorded as Short-horns in the 
earlier volumes of the English Herd Book, and of consequence, since 
in the American Herd Book, as the latter is founded on the English 
publication, as standard authority, in all matters of Short-horn gene- 
alogy. 

During the years above mentioned several other bulls from the 
Gough and Miller Virginia stock were brought into Kentucky and 
Ohio — some with names and some without names, other than those 
of their owners — as "Inskip's bull," " Peeple's bull " (Mars, probably), 
" YYitherspoon's bull," "Bluff," and others. 

Some pedigrees in the Herd Books run back into several of those 
bulls, which, as many pure-bred crosses have since been made upon 
their descendants, and been recorded in the English Herd Book, 
must be classed in the family of Short-horns. 

From the above accounts it is understood where and how the 
" Patton stock " originated. There can be no doubt that some of 
the original importations of Gough and Miller were well-bred cattle 
of the Short-horn or Teeswater breed (which were identical in origi- 
nal blood), but without pedigrees; also that others of them may have 
been of the Holderness variety — coarser and less improved — of the 
same race. In the various accounts which we have gathered from 
different quarters in Ohio and Kentucky, some of them were rough 



l6o HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

animals, tardy in arriving at maturity, others fine both in figure and 
quality, and most of the cows descended from them proved excellent 
milkers. Their colors were more or less red, white, and roan, which 
are true Short-horn colors. 

These accounts are about as accurate and as much to the point as 
the English traditions relating to the ancient Short-horns, or Tees- 
waters in their native land, and may be received as a fair basis on 
which to found the genealogy of all the pedigrees which trace back 
into the " Patton " blood, and are found recorded in both the English 
and American Herd Books. We have had accounts of, and have seen 
many admirable animals of this descent, since crossed with well-bred 
Short-horn bulls, among the Kentucky and other Western herds, 
which, aside from their Patton origin, would be considered, by accu- 
rate breeders, equal in blood and quality to many cattle of later 
importation and unquestionable descent. 

With this meager and perhaps unsatisfactory narrative, we are 
obliged # to dismiss the Gough and Miller importation, and "Patton 
stock " of Kentucky. Besides what has been published in the agri- 
cultural and other papers regarding them, all of which are condensed 
in the above account, we have had the opportunity of conversing 
with several aged cattle breeders of the blue-grass region of Ken- 
tucky more than thirty years ago on the subject, and they clearly 
corroborated the accounts according to their recollection, as we have 
given them. A few of these venerable men are still living and have 
attested to the great excellence of one or more of those bulls as pos- 
sessing many strikingly good points of the well-bred bulls of the 
present day. 

Various Other Importations. 

Soon after the last American war with England, in the year 1815, 
it is stated that Mr. Samuel M. Hopkins, then a resident at Moscow, 
in the Genesee valley, N. Y., imported a Short-horn bull called Mar- 
quis (408), and a cow called Princess, said to be of the stock of Robert 
Colling. Mr. Hopkins also, in 18 17, brought out a bull, Moscow 
(9413). A few descendants from these, afterwards crossed by Short- 
horn bulls from Col. Powel's herd, purchased by the Holland Land 
Company for the benefit of the settlers on their lands in Western New 
York, were carefully bred many years at and near Batavia, in Western 
New York, some of the blood of which is still found in good herds. 

In 1815 or '16 a Mr. Cox, an Englishman, brought into Rensselaer 
county, near Albany, N. Y., a Short-horn bull and two cows, which 



THE KENTUCKY IMPORTATION. l6l 

were placed upon the farm of Mr. Cadwallader Colden. They were 
there bred for several years, but had no recorded pedigrees. They 
were afterwards crossed with the later bulls imported in 1822, by a 
Mr. Wayne, viz. : Comet, 1383, and Nelson, 1914, A. H. B. Some of 
the descendants of the Cox cows and bulls became the property of 
Mr. Bullock, of Albany county, which were bred to these bulls, and 
many good animals sprung from them. These latter were locally 
called the "Bullock stock." We first saw several of them in the 
year 1833. They were large, robust animals, good, although not 
remarkably fine in quality, but compared with others of later impor- 
tation, true Short-horns. 

"The Kentucky Importation of 1817." 

We now come onto fair ground in the introduction of genuine 
Short-horns in the United States ; and although frequent debates and 
controversies have occurred touching the purity in blood of the Short- 
horns of that importation, to a candid mind there can be little doubt 
of their legitimate descent. The story of their purchase, arrival in 
Kentucky, and subsequent breeding, has been often told in various 
publications — among others, in the first and second volumes of the 
American Herd Book ; but as these volumes may not be at the read- 
er's hand, a full repetition of their history will be given. 

Col. Lewis Sanders, a gentleman of character, position, and engaged 
in active business, then in the prime of life, lived at Grass Hills, Ky., 
in the year 1816. We have had the pleasure of his personal acquaint- 
ance, having first met him about the year 1850, in Cincinnati, Ohio, 
and on two or three occasions afterwards — the last time in the city 
of New York, in the winter of 1859-60, he then being upwards of 
eighty years of age, and a few years previous to his decease. In our 
first interview he particularly related the account of his importation 
of cattle from England into Kentucky in the year 181 7, of which Ave 
then made a memorandum. Of his truthfulness no one knowing him 
ever entertained a question. The best and most succinctly written 
account of that importation was by Mr. Brutus J. Clay, of Bourbon 
county, Ky., a large farmer, Short-horn cattle breeder, and a gentle- 
man of unquestionable character, published February 1, 1855, in the 
Ohio Farmer, at Cleveland, Ohio. In prefacing his account Mr. Clay 
introduces a letter from Col. Sanders to Mr. Edwin G. Bedford, an 
extensive and experienced Short-horn cattle breeder of Bourbon 
county, Ky. : 
II 



l62 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

" I was induced to send die order for die cattle (in the fall of 
1816), by seeing an account of Charles Coding's great sale in 1810. 
At this sale enormous prices were paid ; one thousand guineas for 
the bull Comet. This induced me to think there was a value un- 
known to us in these cattle, and as I then had the control of means, 
determined to procure some of this breed. For some years previous 
I was in the regular receipt of English publications on agricultural 
improvements, and improvements in the various descriptions of stock. 
From the reported surveys of counties, I was pretty well posted as to 
the localities of the most esteemed breeds of cattle. My mind was 
made up, fixing on the Short-horns as most suitable for us. I had 
frequent conversations on this matter with my friend and neighbor, 
Capt. William Smith, then an eminent breeder of cattle. He was 
thoroughly impressed in favor of the old Long-horn breed. To 
gratify him, and to please some old South Branch feeders, I ordered 
a pair of Long-horns ; and was more willing to do so from the fact, 
that this was the breed selected by the distinguished Mr. Bakewell 
for his experimental, yet most successful improvements. I forwarded 
to the house of Buchanan, Smith & Co., of Liverpool, $1,500 to make the 
purchase, expecting to get three pair only, with instructions to pro- 
cure a competent judge and suitable agent, to go into the cattle 
district and make the selection, the animals not to be over two years 
old, and no restriction as to price. At the time, the Holderness breed 
was in highest repute for milkers. I directed that the agent should 
be sent to Yorkshire to procure a pair of that breed, then to the river 
Tees, in Durham county, for a pair of Short-horn Durhams, then to 
the county of Westmoreland for a pair of the Long-horns, etc. 

" The agent sent from Liverpool, J. C. Etches, a celebrated butcher 
of that place, went as directed, and purchased six pair instead of 
three. It being soon after the war, all kinds of produce had much 
cheapened, and the stock sold lower than was expected. 

" After the cattle were shipped from Liverpool, on the vessel Mo- 
hawk, bound to Baltimore, Md., where the cattle afterwards landed, 
I sold one-third interest in them to Capt. William Smith, and another 
third to Dr. Tegarden, of Kentucky." 

It appears that there were twelve animals in all purchased and 
shipped — eight Short-horns, four bulls and four heifers; and four 
Long-horns, two bulls and two heifers. No pedigrees came with the 
cattle, as it was five years previous to the publication of the first 
volume of the English Short-horn Herd Book. There was simply an 



THE KENTUCKY IMPORTATION OF 1817. 163 

invoice of the cattle, which only partially described them. This 
invoice Col. Sanders gave, as follows : 

"No. 1. Bull from Mr. Clement. Winston, on the river Tees, got 
by Mr. Constable's bull, brother to Comet," afterwards (155) E. H. B. 
The name of this bull was San Martin, afterwards (2599) in E. H. B. 

"No. 2. Bull, Holderness breed, from Mr. Scott, out of a cow 
which gave 34 quarts of milk per day." The name of this bull was 
Tecumseh, afterwards (5409) E. H. B. 

" No. 3. Bull from Mr. Reed, West-holme, of his own old breed." 
This bull is probably the one called Comet, afterwards 1382, A. H. B. 
Said to have been got by either Comet (155), or his brother North Star 
(458), E. H. B. 

" No. 4. Bull, Holderness breed, from Mr. Humphreys, got by 
Mr. Mason's bull, of Islington." No Herd Book record appears to 
have since been made of this bull, and we know not what became of 
him. Mr. Clay states that one of the bulls "was sold to Capt. Fowler, 
who afterwards sold him to Gen. Fletcher, and was taken to Bath 
county, Ky., where he died." 

Of the females, the invoice states that 

" No. 7, was a heifer from Mr. Wilson, Staindrop, Durham breed. 

" Nos. 8, 9, 10, were heifers from Mr. Shipman, on the river Tees, 
of his own breed. 

" In the division of the Short-horns above named, Col. Sanders 
became owner of the bulls San Martin and Tecumseh." Col. San- 
ders states that Comet became the property of Dr. Tegarden. 

" Of the Shipman heifers, No. 7 became the property of Captain 
Smith, and was called the 'Durham Cow.' 

" Of the four remaining, two were retained by Col. Sanders. One 
of which was called ' Mrs. Motte,' and the other named the ' Teeswater 
Cow.' " 

The other fourth heifer died in Maryland, never having reached 
Kentucky. 

This disposes of the Short-horns of the importation. 

" Of the Long-horns, Capt. Smith was the owner of one of the bulls, 
called 'Bright.' Dr. Tegarden took the other, and called him 'Ris- 
ing Sun,' which, by some strange mistake, is recorded in the English 
Short-horn Herd Book as number (6386). 

"Of the Long-horn cows, No. n was called the 'Long-horn Cow,' 
and No. 12, 'Georgia Ann,' the property of the gentlemen who 
owned the Lontr-horn bulls." 



164 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

The Long-horns were bred together, and left some produce. A 
Long-horn bull, from Capt. Smith's cow, was sold to Mr. George 
Renick, of the Scioto valley, in Ohio, where he was bred for some 
years. The original Long-horn bulls were bred to some extent to 
other cows than those which were imported with them, but they did not 
prove popular with the cattle breeders of Kentucky, and after a trial 
of some years they gradually run out, as many years ago no trace of 
them, in pure blood, could be found in the vicinity of their importa- 
tion. Through the bull taken to Ohio by Mr. Renick (but whether 
from pure Long-horn heifers or not we have no information), several 
cattle with marked characteristics of the blood were bred in the 
Scioto valley. We recollect, in 182 1, when just verging into man- 
hood, taking a horseback journey from Columbus to Circleville, in 
the vicinity of which latter town the Renick brothers owned large 
landed estates, we saw a herd of a dozen or more Long-horned cattle 
grazing in a field by the side of the road. Their singular appearance, 
grazing on the rich blue-grass, or lying under the shade of the majes- 
tic trees, attracted our attention. We rode up to the fence, hitched 
our horse, and went into the field to view them. They had every 
appearance of being either thorough-bred, or high grades of the 
Long-horn breed, with long drooping horns, pushing forward beyond 
their noses, or falling below their jaws, light brindle in color, with 
white stripes along their backs, as we now see their portraits in the 
books. They were long-bodied, a little swayed in the back, not 
very compact in shape, but withal imposing animals to the eye. 
We made no inquiries about them at the time, as we then knew little 
of breeds of cattle. Thirty years afterwards being again at Circle- 
ville, and having a better knowledge of breeds, on inquiry for cattle 
of that character, we could find no trace, nor even a recollection of 
them among the older farmers of the vicinity. 

We have diverged into this somewhat extended episode of the 
Long-horns to explain why and wherefore it has since become a sub- 
ject of more or less controversy with doubters of the integrity of 
the Short-horn blood of the 181 7 importation, that the Long-horn 
blood became to some extent amalgamated with the true Short-horn 
blood of the stock which came into Kentucky with them. It is cer- 
tain that the bull " Rising Sun " got into the English Herd Book 
(6386), as "imported into the United States of America." It is also 
certain that some pedigrees of crosses between the Long-horned 
and Short-horned cattle have crept into the Herd Books, both Eng- 
lish and American ; but, as the Long-horns in England have for a 



THE KENTUCKY IMPORTATION OF 1817. 165 

long series of years been considered a valuable race, and their reputa- 
tion, through the skill and perseverance of Bakewell, their distinguished 
breeder, stood high, and many pure Short-horn crosses have since 
been made upon the Kentucky Long-horns, little, if any, injury can 
be imputed to animals now existing which may inherit the remote 
fraction of Long-horn blood traced into their veins. 

To return to the Short-horns of the 18 17 importation, and the 
evidences, in absence of pedigrees to them, touching their purity of 
blood, which has been challenged. In addition to the testimony of 
Col. Sanders in the employment of his agent, Mr. Etches, the latter, 
in a letter to Mr. Affleck, published in the Western Farmer and Gar- 
dener, writes : " I have been a butcher twenty-eight years in Liver- 
pool, and am a breeder of fine stock. I was the purchaser of the 
Short-horn stock for Messrs. Buchanan, Smith & Co., which went to 
America in 181 7 — six in number, three bulls and three heifers [eight 
he ought to have said, as there were four of each sex, including the 
two Holderness, which were also Short-horns, in fact]. Every animal 
was pure of its kind." They were selected in Durham or Yorkshire — 
perhaps in both, near the river Tees, the ancient home of the race. 

Mr. Etches was afterwards the purchaser of Short-horns for other 
American importers — for Mr. Letton, of Kentucky, of the bull Loco- 
motive, 92 and (4242), also for Mr. Vail, of Troy, N. Y., of the bull 
Duke of Wellington, 55 and (5654), and the cow Duchess, page 172, 
Vol. 1, A. H. B., all three of them from the herd of Mr. Thomas 
Bates. 

The late Gen. James Garrard, of Kentucky, whose word no one 
would question, states that "when in England many years ago, he 
saw Mr. Etches, who assured him that the Short-horns which he pur- 
chased for Col. Sanders were as good of their kind as were then to 
be had in England." 

Further, Ave now quote from the second volume of the American 
Herd Book, edited in the year 1855 : 

"In 1S4S, Mr. Stevens, of New York, was in England. He thus 
writes: 'I saw Mr. J. C. Etches in York, and was introduced 
to him by Mr. Thomas Bates, the noted Short-horn breeder. In 
answer to my questions, Mr. Etches remarked: 'I purchased for Mr. 
Sanders, of America, in 18 17, some Short-horn cattle, of different 
persons, near the river Tees. These cattle were thought by myself 
and others to be very fine animals.' In answer to the question by 
me if he knew the pedigrees of any of these cattle, Mr. Etches turned 
to Mr. Bates, and said : ' Mr. Bates probably knows something about 



1 66 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

the pedigree of the Shipman heifers, and I refer to him.' Mr. Bates 
replied, that he well recollected of Mr. Shipman's selling a heifer to 
go to America She was called 'Mrs. Motte,' after a sister of either 
Mr. or Mrs. Shipman. Mr. Maynard had a cow by a son of Hubback 
(319), which cow he called Starling. This cow (Starling) had three 
daughters. One of these daughters Mr. Maynard kept. One he sold 
to me (Mr. Bates), and the other he sold to Mr. Shipman, who called 
her 'Starling,' after her dam, and when he bought her she was in calf 
to 'Adam' (717). The produce was a heifer, which he called 'Mrs. 
Motte,' and afterwards sold to Mr. Etches.' As Mr. Bates owned a 
sister of the dam of Mrs. Motte, he knew her pedigree, and as a sale 
to go to America was a remarkable thing in that day, the fact made a 
strong impression on Mr. Bates' mind. See pedigree of ' Young Star- 
ling,' in page 543, Vol. 2, Coates' Herd Book. Mr. Shipman's 'Star- 
ling ' (dam of Mrs. Motte), was full sister to one of the Starlings 
named in said pedigree. (Of course her pedigree was the same.) 

" Mrs. Motte's pedigree thus stands : 

"Mrs. Motte, got by Adam (717), dam Starling, by a son [by 
Favorite (252)] of Mr. Maynard's old Yellow Favorite (cow); gr. d. 
by a son of Hubback (319), g. gr. d. by Manfield (404), g. g. gr. d. 
(Young Strawberry), by Dalton Duke (188). Here this pedigree, at 
page 543, Vol. 2, ends; but referring, in Vol. 1, page 508, to the ped- 
igree of Young Strawberry, the cow last named above, it will be seen 
that she goes further back, in carrying out the pedigree of Mrs. 
Motte, thus : g. g. g. gr. d. Favorite (bred by Mr. Maynard), by Mr. 
R. Alcock's bull (19). Then, in pedigree of this cow, Favorite, Vol. 
1, page 308, it will be seen that Mrs. Motte's pedigree continues 
further back, thus : g. g. g. g. gr. d. by Mr. Jacob Smith's bull (608), 
g. g. g. g. g. gr. d. by Mr. Jolly's bull (337). There are few, if any, 
better pedigrees than Mrs. Motte's — granting it to be correct — in the 
English Herd Book. 

"As the other two heifers, and the bulls, were purchased in the 
same neighborhood, and at the same time, it may be inferred, that if 
their pedigrees were not equal in length, their blood may have been 
as good. But it is not proposed to argue the question. Facts are 
submitted. 

"In the succeeding importations, by Mr. Powel, of Philadelphia, 
some of which found their way into Kentucky, in i824~'5 (the pedi- 
grees of which were unquestioned), the descendants of the 1817 
importation were bred to these bulls, and were afterwards bred to 
the Ohio and Kentucky importations of later years ; and as they have 



THE KENTUCKY IMPORTATION OF 1S17. 167 

been bred upon by fresher unquestionable Short-horn blood for more 
than thirty years, there is but a fractional part of the 18 17 blood to 
be traced in any living animal claiming descent from it. These 
descendants stand upon record as having frequently been successful 
competitors among the prize cattle in the States, where they have 
been exhibited by the side of those possessing none else than pure 
Short-horn blood. 

" Since writing the above, I have been favored with a letter from 
Mr. H. H. Hankins, of Bloomington, Clinton county, Ohio, who was 
one of the agents sent by the Clinton County Cattle Company to 
England, for the purchase of Short-horns, in 1854. It is thus : 

'Dear Sir — Yours, asking for information relative to the Sanders 
cattle importation of 1S17, is at hand. I was, when in England, in 
the immediate neighborhood of the river Tees, where Mr. Etches 
purchased the cattle, i. e., the Short-horns. Before I left Ohio, I had 
learned the names of the persons of whom the stock had been bought, 
and also their locality. I made inquiry of many who are now breed- 
ing Short-horns on the Tees, respecting the persons of whom the 
cattle were bought. I found several who knew them from character, 
but were not personally acquainted with them ; but was recommended 
to call on an old gentleman, of good character, living near Darling- 
ton, who had been a breeder of Short-horns at the time Mr. Etches 
bought them for Col. Sanders. His name is Timothy Lanchester. 
He told me that he had been an intimate friend of Messrs. Robert 
and Charles Colling, and most of the other old breeders in Durham. 
I gave him the names of the men of whom Mr. Etches bought the 
cattle for Mr. Sanders. He at once said that he knew them well, 
and gave me a certificate, a copy of which I send you. I was recom- 
mended to this old gentleman by the Messrs. Emerson, Harrison, and 
others, who spoke highly of his integrity and knowledge of the old 
breeders in that vicinity. The certificate is as follows : 

' I, Timothy Lanchester, of Haughton Leskeine, near Darlington, Durham, Eng- 
land, born in the year 1771, do hereby certify, that I was well acquainted with 
Matthew Shipman, Clement Winston, Thomas Reed, and Mr. Wilson, who were 
cattle breeders on the river Tees, and who, it is said, sold some Short-horns to a Mr. 
Etches, of Liverpool, which were to be shipped to the United States, in the year 181 7. 

' They were gentlemen of the highest character, and their fine Short-horns were 
considered equal to any in the country at that day. The importance of keeping 
pedigrees was not so much thought of at that day as at the present ; since which 
time there has been -a public record of the Short-horns kept in England, by which 
may be traced, some of them, to the herds of the above-named gentlemen. I was 
engaged in breeding Short-horns at the date above alluded to, and have been more 



HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 



or less interested in Short-horns up to the present, and have been familiar with most 
of the breeders of Short-horns in England, from the days of the Collings down to 
the present time, and I have never heard any one doubt that the Messrs. Shipman, 
Winston, Reed and Wilson, possessed as pure Short-horns as existed at that day. 
' Given under my hand, at Darlington, England, the 6th day of March, 1854. 

(Signed) Timothy Lanchester.' 

' I could have had a number of other certificates from younger 
breeders, but I preferred to take one from this old and much esteemed 
gentleman, who had personally known those old breeders. 

(Signed) H. H. Hankins. 

' Bloomington, Ohio, March 25, 1855.' " 

To pursue the 1817 importation exhaustively, we quote further 
from Vol. 4, American Herd Book, edited in the year 1859 : 

" I herewith publish a list of the produce, by name, of the three 
cows of Col. Sanders' Kentucky importation of 181 7, together with 
the produce of some of their daughters. The record will be gratify- 
ing to many who are interested in that blood, and valuable for future 
reference. For these papers I am indebted to Mr. H. H. Hankins, 
of Clinton county, Ohio, who received them from Dr. S. D. Martin, 
of Clark county, Ky. They are as follows : 

u Produce of Mrs. Motte, Kentucky importation 1817. 



Year of 1 Color 








Births. | & Sex. 








1818, B. 


Paul Jones (4661), 


Imp. Tecumseh (5409), 




1819, Red H. 


Lady Munday, 


Imp. San Martin (2599) 


Gen. Garrard. 


1821, " H. 


Lady Kate, 


Imp. Tecumseh (5409), 


T. P. Dudley. 


1823, " H. 


Miss Motte, 


Imp. San Martin (2599) 


Col. Sanders. 


1824, " H. 


Sylvia, 


do. 


Gen. Garrard. 


1826, " P.. 


Den. de la Motte (19 14) 


do. 


Dr. Martin. 


1827, r.&w.B. 


Stonehammer, 


do. 


Ohio Shakers. 


1828, " B. 


Accommodation (2907) 


Cornplanter (3492), 


Walter Dun. 


1830, " B. 


Partnership (6277), (?) 


Accommodation (2907) 





"Produce of the Durham Cow, Kentucky importation 1817. 



1818, 


— B. 


Wickliffe's bull, 1099, 


Got on passage,* 


Robert Wickliffe. 


1819, 


— B. 


Wellington, 


San Martin (2599), 


Mr. Carr. 


1820, 


— H. 


Smith Heifer, 


do. 


Gen. Garrard. 


1821, 


— H. 


Lady Durham, 


do. 


B.W. & E.Worthen. 


1822, 


— B. 


Lafayette, 1755, 


Paul Tones (4661), 


Col. Sanders. 


1823, 


— B. 


Napoleon, 1899, 


San Martin (2599), 


Major Gano. 


1824, 


— H. 


Beauty, 


Lafayette, 1755, 


Col. Sanders. 


1825, 


— B. 


DeKalb (steer). 


Napoleon, 1899, 


do. 


1826, 


— B. 


Dead, 


do. 


do. 


1828, 


— H. 


Hadassah, 


do. 


do. 


1829, 


— H. 


No name, 


do. 


Major Gano. 



" * The Herd Cook pedigree of Wickliffe's bull, says : ' Got by San Martin (2599)'. — L. F. A. 



THE KENTUCKY IMPORTATION OF 1817. 169 

"Produce of the Teeswater Cow, Kentucky importation 1S17. 



Year of 1 Color 
Births. | &Sex. 


Name. 


Sire. 


Owner. 


18 1 8, Red B. 

— II. 

— II. 

B 


Mirandi (4488), 
M iss 1 [aggin, 
Hetty (Haggin), 
Kentuckian (1733), 

Pink, 


Got on passage,* 
San Martin (2599), 

do. 

do. 
Mirandi (4488)* 
Munday's bull, 727, 


Judge Haggin. 
Dr. Warfield. 
W. R. Scott. 


— H. 

— n. 


Judge Haggin. 
S. Smith. 



" In regard to the produce of this cow, Dr. Martin says : ' I cannot give the dates 
of their birth, nor do I suppose I have given them in their proper order' (of sex or 
name). — Ed. 
" * The Herd Book pedigree of Mirandi, says : ' Got by San Martin (2599)'. — L. F. A. 

"Produce of Lady Munday, by San Martin (2599), out of Mrs. Motte. 



1821, 


— B. 


Cornplanter (3492), 


Tecumseh (5409), 


Hector Lewis. 


1823, 


— B. 


Champion, 325, 


do. 


Gen. Garrard. 


1824, 


— II. 


Tulip, 


Mirandi (4488), 


do. 


1825, 


— H. 


Dead, 


do. 


do. 


1826, 


— 11. 


Beauty, 


Sportsman, 998, 


do. 


IS27, 


— B. 


Denton (3583), 


Champion, 325, 


do. 


1828, 


— B. 


Misfortune, 716, 


Sportsman, 998, 


do. 


1829, 


— B. 


Comet, 355, 


do* 


do. 


1830, 


— B. 


Drone, 


do. 


do. 


1831, 


— H. 


Drucilla, 


Duroc, 454, 


do. 


IS32, 


— B. 


Slider, 979, 


do. 


do. 



" * The Herd Book pedigree of Comet, says : ' Got by Cornplanter (3492)'. — L. F. A. 

"Produce of Lady ICate, by Tecumseh (5409), out of Mrs. Motte. 



1824, 


— II. 


Duchess, 


San Martin (2599), 


H. Blanton. 


, 


— B. 


Mohawk (4492), 


do. 


James Munday. 


1827, 


— H. 


Nancy Dawson, 


do. 


Mr. McClure. 


1829, 


— II. 


Eleanor, 


Stonehammer, 


T. P. Dudley. 


IS30, 


— H. 


Amanda, 


Accommodation (2907) 


T. G. Brent. 


1831, 


— B. 


Oscar, 


do. 


T. P. Dudley. 


1832, 


— B. 


Backway (?), 


do. 


Mr. Goodloe. 


1833, 


— B. 


Dan Webster, 


Tariff, 1023, 


Mr. Dudley. 


1834, 


— B. 


Southard, 994, V* 


Pontiac (4734), 


do. 


1836, 


— II . 


Dead, 


Tariff, 1023, 


do. 


1837, 


— H. 


Miss Biddle, 


Nic Biddle, 


T.P.& J.W.Dudley. 


I83S, 


— B. 


Echo, 


Geo. Reynolds, 1610, 


do. 



" In 1838, Lady Kate broke her leg, and was slaughtered at 17 years old. 

"Produce of the Smith Heifer, by San Martin (2599), 0ltt °f ^ ie Dur- 

ham Cow. 



1S24, — B. Sportsman, 



Cornplanter (3492), | Gen. Garrard. 



" This cow had no other calf, being soon afterwards killed by the goring of an ox. 



170 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

u Produce of Sylvia, by San Martin ( 2$gg), out of Mrs. Motte. 



Year of 
Births. 


1 Color 
1 & Sex. 


Name. 


Sire. 


Owner. 


1826, 


— B. 


Exchange, 482, 


Champion, 325, 


Gov.Trimble, Ohio. 


1828, 


— B. 


Duroc, 454, 


Sportsman, 998, 


Messrs. Renick, do. 


1830, 


— H. 


Nymph, 


do. 


Gen. Garrard. 


I83I, 


— B. 


President, 2046, 


Cornplanter (3492), 


do. 


1832, 


— B. 


Proclamation (4838), 


Denton (3583), 


do. 


1834, 


— H. 


Octavia, 


do. 


do. 


1835, 


— H. 


Virginia, 


Exception (3746), 


do. 



"Produce of Lady Durham, by San Martin ( 2^ggJ, out of the Durham 

Cow. 



1833 


— H. 


Susan Munday, 


Mirandi (4488), 


James Haggin. 


1834 


— H. 


Laura, 


Oliver (2387), 


Ben. Warfield. 


1835 


— H. 


Lady Macallister, 


Pontiac (4734), 


J. N. Brown, 111. 


1836 


— H. 


Phoenix, 


Oliver (2387), 


Ben. Warfield. 


1837 


— H. 


Lily, 


Alonzo, 209, 


E. Worthen. 




— B. 


Commodore (3448), 


Mirandi (4488), 











— B. 


Daniel Boone, 


Son of Mirandi (4488), 







— B. 


Kentucky, 1734, 


Tariff, 1023, 





" (A part of the numbers attached to the bulls in the above tables, I have looked 
up and placed there myself. — L. F. A.) 

" Dr. Martin, in a note, adds : ' I have no list of the produce of the Durham 
Cow's heifer Beauty, by Lafayette, 1755, except one heifer called Beauty, by Prince 
Regent, 877.' 

" Thus it will be seen that the three imported cows produced thir- 
teen heifers, besides sundry bulls, and that four of those heifers 
produced fifteen heifer calves, besides bulls — twenty-eight known 
females. Supposing the eight other heifers (for the ' Smith heifer ' 
only produced one calf, and that a bull) had produced three heifer 
calves each, making twenty-four, there would be in the second gen- 
eration of the imported cows, including 'Beauty, by Prince Regent,' 
forty breeding cows — and those well cultivated in their breeding 
faculties during their lives, as their liberal proprietors, both in Ken- 
tucky and Ohio, would be sure to do, we can well imagine that their 
numbers, at the present time, would swell to an extent much beyond 
what the pages of the Herd Books represent. 

"Had all the names of the heifer descendants of the 181 7 impor- 
tation been preserved by the breeders of their produce, many of the 
uncertainties resting upon some of their recorded pedigrees would be 
explained. The same remarks may be applied to the produce of 
some other importations of well-bred Short-horns many years ago. 



THE KENTUCKY IMPORTATION OF 1817. 171 

occasional pedigrees or memorandums of which have been hunted up 
and recorded in the present volume. 

" With these tables of produce of the three cows of the original 
Kentucky importation in 1817, and some of their heifers, it is to be 
hoped that those breeders interested in their blood, whose cattle ped- 
igrees do not trace back, by name, on the dam's side, will be able to 
substantiate their claim to an undisputed genealogy." 

It will thus be seen that all Short-horns tracing their pedigrees 
back through well-bred bulls into animals of both sexes named in the 
foregoing tables, may be called pure Short-horns, admitting that the 
181 7 importation were such. Alluding back to Mr. B. J. Clay's letter 
from which we have so largely quoted, he remarks: "In 181 7 [other 
accounts say 1818] Mr. James Prentice, of Lexington, Ky., imported 
two bulls, John Bull, 598^, and Prince Regent, 877, A. H. B., one of 
the celebrated Durham improved breed, and the other of the im- 
proved i Milk' breed. John Bull was a deep red, fine size, good form, 
with delicate down-pointed horns. Prince Regent was pied, white, 
with some red spots. They were purchased by Nathaniel Hart, of 
Woodford, and John Hart, of Fayette counties, for $1,500, and pro- 
duced some good stock." 

These bulls were considered good Short-horns, but like the impor- 
tation of 181 7, they had no written pedigrees. Many excellent Herd 
Book animals now trace their genealogy into John Bull and Prince 
Regent, of the Prentice importation. 

Those pedigrees which trace through well-bred bulls since the 
Gough and Miller importation, or Patton tribe, may have a slight 
fraction of unknown blood ; but it may possibly be doubted whether 
they now have more outside blood in their composition than some 
other Short-horns of English birth and Herd Book pedigrees which 
have since been imported. 

As intimated, there may be some trivial errors in the foregoing 
accounts of the early Kentucky Short-horn herds, caused by the 
various sources from which they are derived, but in the main they 
may be considered correct. Many years ago, between 1830 and 
1840, a committee for the purpose of compiling and issuing a Short- 
horn Herd Book in Kentucky was appointed, consisting of the late 
Messrs. Benjamin Warfield of Fayette, Samuel D. Martin of Clark, 
and Robert W. Scott of Franklin counties — the two last mentioned 
still living. They obtained probably all the information then in 
existence relative to the subject in hand. We understood that Dr. 
Martin was charged with the possession of the documentary matter 



172 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

pertaining to their proposed labors, but the project was never carried 
out. It is chiefly from such material that our information, at second 
hand, has been derived. 

In November, 1817, Mr. Samuel Williams, of Massachusetts, then 
a merchant, residing in London, England, purchased of the cele- 
brated breeder, Mr. Wetherell, and sent to his brother, Stephen 
Williams, of Northboro', Mass., the bull "Young Denton" (963), 16 
months old. (This pedigree in Vol. 2, E. H. B., says Mr. Wetherell 
sold him to Col. Powel, near Philadelphia, Pa., but that is an error.) 
The bull arrived in Boston, Mass. He remained in that State until 
the year 1827 or '28, when he was taken to Maine, where he died 
April 16, 1830. We saw the bull in Massachusetts in the year 1822, 
then owned by Mr. Williams. He was a fine animal. 

In 1818 Mr. Cornelius Coolidge, of Boston, imported the bull 
Ccelebs, 349, and cow Flora, by Son of Comet (155), both bred by 
Mr. Mason, of Chilton. From them descended many good animals 
Avhose pedigrees are in the American Herd Book. 

About the year i82o-'2i, Mr. Law, of Baltimore, or Washington, 

D. C, imported the cow Rosemary, by Flash (261), bred by Mr. 
Curwen. Rosemary afterwards passed into the possession of Col. 
Powel, of Philadelphia, Pa., and from her many distinguished ani- 
mals of Kentucky and other States are descended. Mr. Law may at 
the same time have imported another animal or two. If so, we have 
no account of their names. 

In 1 82 1 the late Colonel John S. Skinner, of Baltimore, imported 
for Governor Lloyd, of Maryland, the bull Champion (864), the 
cows Shepherdess, by Magnet (302), and White Rose, by Warrior 
(673); all these were bred by Mr. Coates, the first editor of the 

E. H. B. Shepherdess afterwards became the property of Colonel 
Powel. What became of White Rose is not known. She was the 
dam of Wye Comet (1591), by Blaize (76), got in England, but born 
in America, the property of Mr. Law. He was afterwards owned and 
used by Col. Powel, and finally by Mr. Watson, of Connecticut. 

In 1822 Mr. Williams, of London, before named, also sent to his 
brother the cow Arabella, by North Star (460), bred by Mr. Weth- 
erell. From her came numerous descendants whose pedigrees are 
found in the several volumes of the American Herd Book. 

In or about the year 1822 several cows were imported into Boston 
by Messrs. Lee, Orr, Monson, and perhaps others, chiefly from the 
stock of Mr. Wetherell, before mentioned ; among these were Tube- 
rose, by North Star (460), owned by Mr. Monson, and Harriet, by 



VARIOUS OTHER IMPORTATIONS. 173 

Denton (198), owned by Mr. Orr. Both these cows had full pedi- 
grees, and left several good descendants. The writer purchased 
Harriet in the year 1834, then 14 years old, and unfortunately, past 
breeding. She was a fine cow, mostly white in color. 

In 1S23 Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin, of the British Navy (Massachu- 
setts born), sent out to the Massachusetts Agricultural Society the 
bull Admiral (1608), and cow Annabella, by Major (398), from the 
herd of Mr. Wetherell. Both animals left many descendants. 

In 1823 Gen. Stephen Van Rensselaer, of Albany, N. Y. — through 
Col. Skinner, as we understood — imported from the herd of Mr. 
Champion, the bull Washington (1566), and the cows Pansy, by 
Blaize (76), and Conquest. The latter of these cows never bred, but 
Pansy had several descendants by Washington, whose produce have 
since been bred and distributed into many States of the Union. 

In the year 1822, and during some years afterwards, the late Mr. 
Charles Henry Hall, a merchant of New York, who had previously 
lived and done business in different countries of Europe, imported 
several Short-horns, selected from some of the best herds in England, 
and among them the cow Princess, by Lancaster (360), bred in 18 16, 
by Robert Colling. Mr. Hall resided on a small farm at Harlem, 
then a village, just out of New York city, on Manhattan Island. He 
kept and bred a few of his Short-horns there, but the larger portion 
of them were taken to his farm in Greenbush, near Albany, where 
they were for several years kept and bred. This gentleman was not 
particularly mindful of keeping the pedigrees of his stock, although 
purely bred, and through this inattention much of the correct lineage 
of his herd was lost. We knew Mr. Hall personally for some years 
while breeding his cattle, and after he had disposed of his herds. In 
answer to our inquiries of their blood relations, his answers were only 
that "they were all purely bred," but, preserving few memoranda of 
their breeding, he could not give particulars. Some of them — the 
Princess family, for instance — have been registered correctly in the 
American Herd Book ; others as only tracing to his imported cows 
and bulls. This much, however, is certain : Mr. Hall assured us at 
different times that he had his animals selected with great care in 
England, and he paid liberal prices for them. We saw many of their 
descendants between the years 1833 and 1840, and they had every 
appearance of well-bred Short-horns, with high milking qualities. 

During the above years of Mr. Hall's importations, several gentle- 
men of New York, chiefly through his influence, imported some 
valuable Short-horns, selected as were Mr. Hall's, chiefly, as we 



174 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

understood, through the agency of Mr. Ashcroft. These were bred 
in the neighborhood of the city, on Long Island, and in Westchester 
county ; but their pedigrees, on account of their owners not knowing 
their importance, were sadly neglected. There can be no doubt, 
however, of the integrity of their blood. Some of their descendants 
are in the American Herd Book, tracing to the original importations. 

In the year 1824, the late Col. John H. Powel, of Powelton, near 
Philadelphia, Pa., a gentleman of large wealth and public spirit in 
agricultural improvement, began the importation of Short-horns, and 
continued it for some years. His selections were mainly, if not 
altogether, from the herd of Mr. Jonas Whitaker, already mentioned, 
of Otley, in Yorkshire. He bred them with great attention and care 
on his home estate, and sold many of their descendants into neigh- 
boring districts of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Some also went 
into New England, others into Kentucky and Ohio. In the cows, he 
aimed at securing large milkers, for dairy purposes, in which one of 
his families, the Belinas, were famous for their yields of both milk 
and butter. In 1831 he imported the bull Bertram (1716), bred by 
Mr. Whitaker. We saw him in his stable at Powelton, in August of 
that year, then 3 years old, a few months after his arrival. In color 
he was red, with a little white, a compact, massive form, short in 
the leg, of fine touch, good hair, and altogether an imposing animal. 
Many distinguished animals of our American herds trace into his 
blood. Col. Powel bred him for some years in his herd. We saw at 
the same time several of his imported cows, among them Belina, by 
Barmpton (54), a famous milker, which yielded at the rate of 20X 
pounds of butter per week. These cows struck us as being of excel- 
lent quality, with indications of giving large quantities of milk, and 
were in rather low condition. They were good in form, long in body, 
straight on the back, broad in the hips, with fine heads and horns, 
excellent coats of hair, with large, well-shaped udders and teats. 

In the year 1828, Mr. Francis Rotch, of New Bedford, Mass., then 
in England, sent out to his brother-in-law, Mr. Benjamin Rodman, 
also of New Bedford, the bull Devonshire (966), and the cows Ade- 
liza, Dulcibella-and Galatea, all by Frederick (1060), from the herd 
of Mr. Whitaker, and with good pedigrees. Descendants from all of 
them are now found in several good American herds. 

In 1834, ourself became the owner of "Devonshire," at 8 years 
old, which we purchased of Mr. Rotch, then his possessor. He was red 
roan in color, good size, excellent points, and left us, as well as his 
previous owners, some excellent stock. He died at n years old. 



MR. ROTCH S IMPORTATIONS. 1 75 

The cows, Adeliza and Dulcibella, both roan in color, we have also 
seen. They were good cows, prolific breeders, excellent milkers, 
and lived to be aged animals. 

As Mr. Rotch' is the only survivor of the enterprising class of 
American gentlemen who introduced the Short-horns into the United 
States previous to the year 1834, we may be pardoned for a further 
brief mention of him. Contemplating this present work, we wrote to 
him about three years ago at his rural home in Morris, Otsego 
county, N. Y., asking for some reminiscences of the early American 
Short-horns to aid us in the undertaking. In his answer, a brief 
extract from which we give, it will be seen that at the age of more 
than four-score years, "his eye was not dim, nor his natural force 
abated." The letter is written in a clear, round hand, unshaken, and 
legible as when in the prime of his life : 

"And now, my dear friend, having poured out the fullness of my 
heart [his previous sentences were on personal matters only], I must 
not expose the emptiness of my head, and incapacity of my mind by 
attempting to render you much assistance in the interesting labor 
you are about to undertake. Samuel Williams, who was bred a farm- 
er's boy in Massachusetts, and became a leading merchant on the 
Exchange of London, in his prosperity thought of his brother at 
home, and presuming no present would be more acceptable than 
some fine stock, sent him over some Short-horns from one of the best 
herds — Mr. Wetherell's, in England. I think with them came out one 
or two heifers for a Boston gentleman. It seemed to me they were 
not appreciated, and but for me and an old friend whom I interested 
in the affair, their pedigrees would have been irrecoverably lost. 

"When in England, in 1828, and making an importation for my 
brother-in-law, Mr. Rodman, I arrived at Otley just in time to attend 
the exhibition of stock, which was then the great and leading show 
of the North for Short-horns. My sudden arrival as an American, 
created much interest and kindly feeling which showed itself in the 
strong wish that I should not go away without obtaining the animals 
I selected, though not intended for sale. ***** 

"How I would work for you were I ten years younger! How I 
should enjoy it ! But it is too late. The decay of intellect, judg- 
ment, and memory in old age is sad, and much more sad when it is 
recognized by the individual himself. I do but cumber the earth." 

Mr. Rotch still survives, at the venerable age of eighty-five years, 
still hale and vigorous, enjoying the temperate pleasures of his quiet 
home in the valley of "The Butternuts," and although retired from 



176 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

breeding his favorite blooded stock, takes a lively interest in what- 
ever appertains to their prosperity and value. 

In the year 1830 Mr. Enoch Silsbey, of Boston, Mass., imported 
the bull Boston (1735), and cow Agatha {alias Boston Cow), by Sir 
Charles (1440), both bred by Mr. Curry, of Northumberland, Eng. 
These animals left many descendants, now in several good herds. 

The foregoing memoranda completes the earlier era of Short-horn 
importations to the United States. The prices for which they could 
be sold was low compared with their actual value. The spirit in 
cultivating improved breeds of cattle pervaded few districts of coun- 
try, and those districts widely separated. Communications between 
the different breeders were few, and inconvenient, and little of a 
common, or of rival interests, existed. New England, with a lean soil, 
for the most part, a rigid climate, and a popular opinion generally 
prevailing among her farmers that Short-horns were great consumers 
of food, and tender in constitution (both egregious mistakes, when 
the proper treatment and early maturity of the race were considered), 
looked upon them as interlopers, and introduced by "fancy gentle- 
men" only, to have something on their farms more extraordinary 
than their humbler, harder-working neighbors. 

The Kentuckians, and some few stock breeders in Ohio, most of 
them large landholders, with a rich soil, a mild climate, and abund- 
ant forage, had readily ascertained their worth, and breeding on the 
early "Patton" blood with the 1817 bulls, and cows exclusively with 
their own bloods, and afterwards with purchases from the later Balti- 
more and Philadelphia importations, not only held their own, and 
carefully kept records of their pedigrees, but industriously increased 
both in blood and quality their cherished herds. Still, for several 
years there was a comparative interregnum in Short-horn progress, 
and aside from the few New England and New York breeders, as- 
sisted east of the Alleganies by the persistent efforts of Col. Powel, 
with his fine herd at Powelton, who kept their pedigrees intact, their 
efforts would have succumbed but for the occasional demand for stock 
from Kentucky and Ohio. The cattle going westward then had to be 
traveled on foot, over hilly and mountainous roads for hundreds of 
miles' distance, and through a period of several weeks' journey to 
reach their new homes. There were no railways, and hardly a canal 
by which cattle could be transported, except the Erie, through the 
interior of New York, which was distant and out of thought for a 
Kentuckian or southern Ohioan to traverse. 



SUBSEQUENT NEGLECT OF THEM. 177 

Down to the year, say 1832-3, most of the Short-horn breeders of 
the States north of Pennsylvania, understanding the importance of 
true lineage in their stock, had kept correct records of their pedi- 
grees, and registered many of them in the English Herd Books. 
Col. Powel had done the same. Yet several parties to whom some 
of these breeders had sold more or less of their stock, deplorably 
neglected to keep correct pedigrees of either them or their increase, 
and through such neglect they were irrecoverably lost. After the 
first interest in their possession had passed away some of the cows 
were crossed with mean, or native bulls, their descendants became 
grades, devoted only to common uses, and ultimately even thorough- 
bred cows, in common with grades, were fed off and driven to the 
shambles. 

12 



178 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 



CHAPTER IX. 

The Later Short-horn Importations. 

We now arrive at a new era in American Short-horns, dating in 
the year 1833; many of the Kentucky breeders being convinced by 
a thirty years' trial, first on the Gough and Miller, or "Patton" 
stock, and again on the importation of 1817, and their better known 
successors, that there was a decided improvement in the neat cattle 
they were rearing, they felt the necessity of still further progress, 
and also that the material needed should be obtained from a source 
where the best specimens then existed. The late Mr. Walter Dun, 
an enterprising Scotch gentleman, residing near Lexington, Ky., in 
1833, sent out a commission to a friend, Mr. William Douglass, living 
in the south of Scotland, with ample funds at command, to go into 
Yorkshire and purchase several Short-horn cattle, the animals to be 
of the best quality, without regard to any reasonable price to be paid 
for them. 

The entire correspondence between the parties connected with this 
transaction has been submitted to us for examination. The instructions 
were faithfully executed, and six animals sent out in accordance with 
them. The importation consisted of the bull Symmetry (5382), and 
cows Caroline, Daisy, Multiflora, Red Rose, and White Rose. The 
cows are recorded in Vols. 2 and 7, A. H. B. Some of the bulls occur- 
ring in their pedigrees were not recorded in the English Herd Book 
at the time of their purchase, but we have carefully examined the 
original certificates sent to this country with, and relating to them. 
The lineage of that importation, may be found in Vols. 2 to 10, 
inclusive, of the American Herd Book. There need be no question 
of the purity of their descent. The cattle were shipped at Liverpool, 
Eng., September 5, 1833, bound to Philadelphia, Pa., and safely 
arrived in Kentucky on the 26th November following, where they 
were heartily welcomed both by the owner and the Short-horn breed- 
ers generally. They were there bred successfully. Their produce, 
in the course of years, became widely disseminated, and are now 



MR. WALTER DUN'S IMPORTATIONS. 1 79 

numerously found in many of the good herds of Kentucky, Ohio, and 
other States. 

Although later in point of time the efforts of Mr. Dun did not 
cease with the importation of 1S33. Breaking through the chrono- 
logical order of dates, in order to complete his introduction of Short- 
horn stock to America, we follow out his transactions. 

In the year 1836 Mr. Dun in connection with Mr. Samuel Smith, 
of Fayette county, Ky. (son of Mr. William Smith, who was con- 
nected with the Kentucky importations of 181 7, previously men- 
tioned), sent another order to England for Short-horns. In compliance 
with the order the bulls George (2059), Comet, 356 (1854), and bull 
calf Otley (4632), together with the cows Adelaide, by Magnum 
Bonum (2243), Beauty of Wharfdale, by Brutus (1752), Jewess, and 
Mary Ann (dam of Otley), by Middlesbro (1234), arrived in Ken- 
tucky. These animals were also selected in England by Mr. Douglass, 
before mentioned. They were placed on the separate farms of the 
proprietors and successfully bred. 

In the year 183S Mr. Dun on his own account made another im- 
portation, consisting of the cows Premium, by Maximus (2284), with 
her bull calf Otho, 794, and Young Charlotte, by Thorp (2757), with 
her bull calf Tarick, 1022. These animals did not arrive in Ken- 
tucky until the fall of the year, after the death of Mr. Dun, which 
occurred August 4, 1S38. 

Mr. Smith, the partner of Mr. Dun, had died a few months before 
the latter gentleman's death occurred. His entire herd was sold at 
public auction a few months afterwards, and the Joint remaining stock 
of the two were sold with them under the orders of their several 
executors, September n, 1838. The list of the partnership animals, 
their purchasers and prices, were as follows : 

Cows. 

Adelaide, sold to R. T. Dillard and C. R. Ferguson, $1,375 

Beauty of Wharfdale, sold to F. S. Read 755 

Adeline, sold to J. Kinnard and Thomas Wallace, 1,030 

Young Adeline, sold to R. P. Kenney, 440 

Mary Ann and calf Otley, 10 days old, sold to R. G. Jackson and B. 

P. Gray, 2,100 

Prudence, sold to E. S. Washington, 755 

Jewess (barren), sold to J. Matson and J. Spear, 276 

At the same sale many other thorough-bred Short-horns and grade 
animals, upwards of thirty in number, belonging to the estate of Mr. 



l8o HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

Smith, were disposed of, all the animals bringing good prices. Among 
the former were 

Cow Cleopatra, sold to C. C. Morgan, for $1,230 

Cow Ellen, sold to R. T. Dillard and C. R. Ferguson, for 1.235 

Bull Oliver Keen, 5 months old, sold to W. S. Hume, for 1,000 

For the imported bull Comet, 356, which had, previous to the sale, 
become the sole property of Mr. Dun, $3,000 was offered by Mr. 
Gray, one of the purchasers of Mary Ann. The offer was refused, 
the herd of Mr. Dun remaining in the possession of his family under 
charge of his executor, Mr. John G. Dun. 

The young imported bull Otley (4632) had been. previously sold 
for $2,100 to Messrs. Wasson and Shropshire, of Bourbon county, Ky. 



" The Ohio Company for Importing English Cattle." 

Excited somewhat, probably, by the recent Dun importation, in 
the year 1834 several spirited cattle breeders of the Scioto valley 
and neighboring counties in Ohio, associated and selected an agent — ■ 
the late Mr. Felix Renick, of Chillicothe — who, with two assistants, 
Edwin J. Harness and Josiah Renick, proceeded to England early in 
that year for the purchase of a herd of Short-horns. It was a pro- 
pitious time. The prices for good stock of the kind in England were 
then low. Mr. Renick bought some from Mr. Whitaker, at Otley, 
Yorkshire, who had previously sent out many cattle to Col. Powel. 
He had a large herd of his own, his acquaintance with other breeders 
was extensive, and Mr. Renick had good facilities for making selec- 
tions from some of the best herds, and at prices within the means at 
his disposal. During Mr. Renick's stay in England he purchased 
nineteen Short-horns — bulls and heifers. They were from various 
eminent breeders living in or near the valley of the Tees. All the 
animals" were thorough-bred, and, with one or two exceptions, which 
could not be then readily obtained, had excellent pedigrees. They 
were duly shipped and arrived in Philadelphia during the summer, 
and driven over the mountains into Ohio, where they were kept on 
Mr. Renick's farm, near Chillicothe, and bred as the joint property 
of the Association. 

In the succeeding years, 1835 and '36, two further importations, 
selected from equally good herds as the previous importation of 1834, 
were made by the same Association. These animals arrived in 
New York, and were transported to Ohio, via Erie Canal to Buffalo, 



OHIO IMPORTING COMPANY'S SALES. l8l 

thence by Lake to Cleveland, and from there to Chillicothe, where 
they joined the earlier importation. The cattle were thus kept until 
October, 1S36, when the entire herd, consisting of the several impor- 
tations and their produce, were sold at public auction. There were 
seventy-five bulls and cows comprised in the entire herd, according 
to the printed catalogue at the time. The number of produce was 
not large, as many of the females were only young heifers when im- 
ported, and the limited increase in but two years is thus readily 
accounted for. 

At the sale a large attendance congregated, chiefly from Ohio, with 
some from Kentucky, and a few breeders from other States. The 
bidding was eager and spirited; prices went high, as many of the 
bidders were stockholders, buying their own goods, yet several out- 
side parties made purchases at equal prices with the others. 

As this was the most important and numerous sale ever made in 
America, down to that time, a full account, copied from The Scioto 
Gazette, October 26, 1836, is herewith given, with purchasers names 
and some other items added : 

Bulls. 

Matcbem (22S3), Abm. Renick, Clark county, Ky., $1,200 

Earl of Darlington (1944), Batteal Harrison, Fayette county, Ohio, 710 

Young Waterloo (2817), R. D. Lilly, Highland county, Ohio, 1,250 

Duke of York (1941), R. R. Seymour, Ross county, Ohio, 1,120 

Greenholme Experiment (2075), J- M- Trimble, Highland county, O. 1,150 

Comet Halley (1855), R. R. Seymour, Ross county, Ohio, 1,505 

Goldfinder (2066), Isaac Cunningham, Bourbon county, Ky., i>og5 

Whitaker (2836), William M. Anderson, Ross county, Ohio, 855 

Nimrod (2371), Elias Florence, Pickaway county, Ohio, 1,040 

Duke of Norfolk (1939), Robert Stewart, Ross county, Ohio, 1,225 

Duke of Leeds (193S), John Crouse, Jr., Ross county, Ohio, 575 

Windham (2845), Charles Davis, Ross county, Ohio 500 

Davy Crocket (3571), Peter L. Ayers, Ohio, 490 

Snowdrop (2654), Stewart & McNiel, Ross county, Ohio 4S0 

Independence (2152), Hagler & Peterson, Ross county, Ohio, 400 

Perry (not recorded), by Reformer (2505), out of Teeswater, W. H. 

Creighton, Madison county, Ohio 4°° 

Goliah (206S), Isaac Cunningham, Bourbon county, Ky., 300 

Logan (2218), Elias Florence, Pickaway county, Ohio, 750 

John Bull (2161), William Renick, Jr., Pickaway county, Ohio, 615 

Paragon of the West (4649), presented by the company to their 

agent, Felix Renick, Ross county, Ohio. 
Powhatan, S2S^, with his dam Flora, Geo. Renick, Ross county, O. 

Rantipole, 885 (247S), Arthur Watts, Ross county, Ohio, 810 

Reformer (2505), unsound. J. T. Webb, Ross county, Ohio 48 



182 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 



Cows. 

Gaudy, by a son of Young Albion (15), J. M. Trimble, Highland 

county, Ohio, $810 

Blossom, by Fitz Favorite (1042), R. R. Seymour, Ross county, O. 1,000 
Flora, by a son of Young Albion (15), and her bull calf Powhatan, 

828'^, George Renick, Ross county, Ohio, 1,205 

Lily of the Valley of the Tees, by Young Rockingham (2547), Thos. 

Huston, Pickaway county, Ohio, 950 

Matilda, by Imperial (2 151), Arthur Watts, Ross county, Ohio,. . . . 1,000 

Calypso, by Bertram (1716), Strawder McNeill, Ross county, Ohio, 325 
Young Mary, by Jupiter (2170), and cow calf Pocahontas, E. J. 

Harness, Ross county, Ohio 1,500 

Lady Blanche, by Prince William (1344), not a breeder, Charles 

Davis, Ross county, Ohio, 250 

Teeswater, by Belvedere (1706), and her cow calf Countess, by Comet 

Halley (1855), John J. Vanmeter, Pike county, Ohio, 2,225 

Duchess of Liverpool (pedigree not obtained), Wm. M. Anderson, 

Ross county, Ohio 5 70 

Lady Colling, by Magnum Bonum (2243), not a breeder, J. T.Webb, 

Ross county, Ohio, 205 

Beauty of the West (pedigree not given), Asahel Renick, Pickaway 

county, Ohio, 900 

Lilac, by Rantipole, 885 (2478), Elias Florence, Pickaway county, O. 425 
Lady of the Lake, by Reformer (2505), R. R. Seymour, Ross Co., O. 

Lady Paley, by Rantipole, 885 (2478), Alex. Renick, Ross county, O. 510 

Poppy, by Rantipole, 885 (2478), Harness Renick, Pickaway Co., O. 610 

Pink, by Duke of York (1941), Wm. Trimble, Highland county, O. 575 

Mayflower, by Duke of York (1941), Batteal Harrison, Fayette 405 

county, Ohio, 405 

Lucy, by Duke of York (1941), Geo. Ratcliff, Pickaway county, O., 505 

Moss Rose, by Stapleton (2698), Jonathan Renick, Pickaway Co., O. 1,200 

Calestina, by Atlas (1660), T. Huston, Pickaway county, Ohio, .... 930 

Malina, by Atlas (1660), Isaac Cunningham, Bourbon county, Ky. 1,005 

Illustrious, by Emperor (1974), Abm. Renick, Clark county, Ky. . . 775 
Lady Abernethy, by Physician (2426), Thomas Huston, Pickaway 

county, Ohio, 815 

On the 1st April, 1837, a meeting of the company was held at 
Chillicothe to close up their affairs and dispose of some remaining 
animals, which were not taken at the sale, and others not then offered. 
The following were thus sold on 15th April, 1837 : 

Bulls. 

Acmon (1606), M. L. Sullivant, Columbus, Ohio, $2,500 

Comet Halley (1855), George Renick & Co., Ross county, Ohio,. . . 2,500 

Hazlewood (2098), A. Trimble and R. R. Seymour, .700 



OHIO IMPORTING COMPANY'S SALES. 1 83 

Bouncer, 13209, John Walke, Pickaway county, Ohio, $453 

Powhatan, 82SX, Harness Renick, Pickaway county, Ohio 500 

Santa Anna (3^ months old, not recorded), C. Vance, Ohio Co., Va. 425 

Cows. 

Flora, by a son of Young Albion (15), M. L. Sullivant, Columbus, O. 1,300 

Matilda, by Imperial (2151), Allen Trimble, Highland county, Ohio, 1,220 
Fidelia, by Comet Halley (1S55), ly, months old, Allen Trimble, 

Highland county, Ohio, 610 

Elizabeth, by , and calf, J. & \V. Vance, Champaign Co., O. 1,450 

Charlotte, by , Joseph G. White, Ross county, Ohio, 630 

Arabella, by Victory (5566), and calf, Arthur "Watts, Ross county, O. 1,200 

Blush, by , J. II. James, Urbana, Ohio, 1,015 

Emily, by , Asahel Renick, Pickaway county, Ohio 875 

Victoress, by Norfolk (2377), M. L. Sullivant, Columbus, Ohio,. . . . 700 

Thus closed the sales of these .memorable importations. The com- 
pany reaped a large profit on their investment, and conferred a 
lasting benefit on the neat stock interests of the country, as well as 
awakened a spirit through various other States for forming associa- 
tions of like character and results. 

At a period of thirty-five years, from the time of the Chillicothe 
sales, the pedigrees of hundreds of the descendants of most of those 
animals can be found recorded in the American Herd Book, while 
others, through various causes, so far as public records are con- 
cerned, have become almost, if not wholly, extinct. 

After the sales of the Ohio Company, importations multiplied 
apace. Agricultural prices in products had been gradually strength- 
ening for the few past years, and meats bore good rates in both our 
home and foreign markets. Money had been unusually abundant for 
two years past, owing to the rival and conflicting measures of political 
parties in the general government, and a consequent false estimate of 
the ability of the people to extend their credits and plunge into all 
sorts of speculation. The farmers throughout the country felt rich, 
and among other items of speculative value it is no wonder that the 
noble race of Short-horn cattle became an attractive object with 
portions of the agricultural community as well as many men of means 
whose tastes sympathized in their pursuits. Thus importations of 
them were sought, commissions were sent to England, and several 
new purchasers went out to select and bring cattle here where prices 
ruled high and sales were rapidly made, particularly in Kentucky 
and Ohio. 



184 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

It is difficult at this space of time (now thirty-five years since, with 
the notices and dates of their arrival only chronicled in the scat- 
tered agricultural periodicals of the day, and the memories of living 
men not exact), to enumerate the names of all the animals imported, 
or the parties owning them from the year 1836 to 1842. It is suffi- 
cient to say, however, that the importing parties were many, and 
their animals numerous. The accounts, so far as we have been en- 
abled to gather them, (but perhaps not in exact chronological order,) 
will be given. 

About the year 1835 or '36, Mr. Thomas Weddle an Englishman, 
emigrated with his family from Yorkshire, Eng., into Western New 
York, and brought with him a dozen or more good Short-horns, all 
having good pedigrees, and chiefly from the herd of Major Bower, a 
well-known breeder of Welham, Yorkshire. Among them were the 
bull Charles (1816) ; Welland 1084K, and one or two others. Among 
the cows were Crocus, by Romulus (2563) ; Primrose, by Pioneer 
.(1321) ; Daisy, by Ebor (3681), and several more. Mr. Weddle bred 
his herd several years, selling as opportunity presented, at good prices ; 
yet, not accustomed to the business, he was careless in the records of 
his herd, and although he had the ability, from the pedigrees of his 
originals, to perpetuate the genealogy of their increase, the lineage of 
many of them was irrecoverably lost, or if not entirely so, they could 
®nly be traced to the importation in general terms. In the course of 
a few years, Mr. Weddle going into other pursuits than farming, his 
herd was sold and dispersed ; some of them going into Kentucky, 
and others remaining in New York. 

In the year 1835 or '36, possibly a year or two earlier, Mr. Ezra P. 
Prentice, of Albany, N. Y., began breeding at his villa farm, near the 
city, a small herd of Short-horns selected chiefly from the stock of 
Gen. Van Rensselaer, already noticed. In 1838, '39, '40, '41, he im- 
ported a number of choice Short-horns from various herds in England. 
Among them were the bulls Fairfax, 61 (3754); O'Connell, 118; and 
cows Appolonia, by Albion (2965); Aurora, by William (2839); 
Catherine, by Sir Robert (5181); Esterville, by Alfred (2987); Flora, 
by Imperial (2151); Moss Rose, by Barden (1674); Princess, by 
Henry (4008); Splendor, by Symmetry (2723); Susan, by Dutchman 
(3669); and Violanta, by Charles (1815). He bred his stock, both 
of American birth and imported, with great skill and decided suc- 
cess, selling many animals into New York, and several other States, 
until the year 1850, when at a public sale he disposed of his entire 
herd. Mr. Prentice was greatly attached to his stock, but the city 



GEORGE VAIL'S IMPORTATION. 185 

had encroached upon him, rendering the necessary accommodations 
for his cattle stock impossible, and with reluctance he parted with 
his herd, then nearly forty in number, and one of the best, at the 
time, in the country. 

About the same time, 1835 or '36, or soon after Mr. Prentice, 
Mr. George Vail, of Troy, N. Y., began breeding Short-horns at his 
villa farm, near that city. He purchased some imported animals, 
and others, selecting them with care and judgment. In the year 1839 
he imported direct from Mr. Thomas Bates, of Durham, Eng., the 
bull Duke of Wellington, 55 (3654), got by Short Tail (2621), 
out of Oxford Premium Cow, by Duke of Cleveland (1937); the 
first one of the Duchess and Oxford crosses combined, which had 
been brought into America. With him came the cow Duchess, by 
Duke of Northumberland (1940). Although called Duchess, she was 
not, on the dam's side, of the Duchess tribe so long identified with 
Mr. Bates' breeding, but running, after her dam, by Belvedere (1706), 
into another family. This cow r after producing the bulls Meteor, 104, 
and Symmetry, 166, (both by Duke of Wellington, 55,) died, leaving 
no female progeny. 

During several successive years Mr. Vail made importations from 
Mr. Bates' and Mr. Bell's herds, of crosses with the Duchess and 
Oxford bulls, and various families of their well-bred cows, down 
to the year 185 1. Among them were the bull Earl Derby, 456; and 
the cows, Cecelia, by 3d Duke of Northumberland (3647); Hilpa, 
by Cleveland Lad (3407) ; Lady Barrington 3d, by Cleveland Lad 
(3407); Arabella, by 4th Duke of Northumberland (3649); Yarm 
Lass, by 4th Duke of York (10167) ; Yorkshire Countess, by 3d Duke 
of York (10166); Agate, by 3d Duke of York (10166); Boukie, by 
4th Duke of York (10167 ; Bright Eyes 3d, by Earl of Derby (10177); 
Frantic, by 4th Duke of York (10167). 

To the above named were added some from other importations. 
Mr. Vail was enthusiastic in the love he bore to his cattle ; he bred 
successfully, making many and frequent sales until the month of 
October, 1852, when he disposed of his entire herd. 

About the year 1836, Mr. Erastus Corning, of Albany, imported the 
cow Wildair, by Anthony (1640). She bred successfully, and her 
descendants are now found in the American Herd Book. There 
may have been another or two heifers, and possibly a bull in the 
importation, but of them we have no particular account. 

Sometime between the years 1835-40, Messrs. James Gowen, 
Dennis Kelley, and perhaps another or two associates in the neigh- 



150 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

borhood of Philadelphia, Pa., either jointly or severally imported 
from England, or purchased from Mr. Whitaker's importation in some 
of those years, some Short-horn bulls and cows, which were said to 
be of good quality and full pedigrees. Several progeny descended 
from these animals, and a few stray ones, through the hands of other 
parties whose stock run into them, have been hunted up, and their 
pedigrees recorded in the American Herd Book. But from the 
neglect or indifference of their proper owners, many of their pedi- 
grees, together with the cattle themselves, have been lost, and only 
occasional traces can now be found of them. 

A striking instance of the self-sufficiency of some men, in their 
own pretensions in one of these cases, as well as in some others of 
past days in the matter of pedigrees may be given. When a certain 
party was asked if he put the pedigrees of his cattle in the Herd 
Book, he scornfully answered : " No ! if my word is not good enough 
evidence of their pure breeding, no Herd Book record can make it 
any better." We fancy that most cattle breeders would rather have 
a clean Herd Book record than the bare assertion, from the imperfect 
memory of any man. Through such lofty assumptions many other- 
wise valuable pedigrees of good Short-horns in this country have 
been lost. 

In the year 1836 Messrs. Edward A. Le Roy and Thomas H. New- 
bould, at Avon, Livingston county, N. Y., imported from England the 
bull Windle, 185 (5667), and the cows Dione, by Monarch (4494) ; 
Lady Morris, by Priam (4758); Netherby, by Gambier (2047); and 
Venus, by Magnum Bonum (2244) — a choice selection. The stock 
was carefully bred for eight or ten years, occasional sales during the 
time being made from them. Soon afterwards these gentlemen mak- 
ing sale of their farms the stock was likewise sold, and the herds 
scattered. 

About the same time as the above, the late Mr. Peter A. Remson, 
of Alexander, Genesee county, N. Y., imported the bull Alexander, 4, 
and the cows Adelaide, by Cupid (1894) ; Lavinia, by a son of Scipio 
(142 1); and Prettyface, by Henwood (2 114). Mr. Remson bred 
them for some years, and sold several of them and their produce 
while at Alexander. On selling his farm in 184-, he soon afterwards 
removed the few remaining ones to another farm, which he occupied 
in Maryland, where, within two or three years, they were finally sold, 
and further traces of them lost, except as some of the pedigrees of 
their descendants have since appeared in the American Herd Book. 



whitaker's and other importations. 187 

In August, 1 S3 7, Mr. Jonas Whitaker, of Yorkshire, Eng., before 
named, imported a herd of 15 bulls and 19 cows and heifers into 
Philadelphia, Pa., and placed them on the farm of Col. Powel, at 
Powelton, near the city. They were a good herd, and in high condi- 
tion, with good pedigrees, as we saw them a few days previous to the 
sale. They had been widely advertised, and at the day of sale drew 
a numerous attendance of Short-horn breeders from the surrounding 
States, and some from the more distant States of Ohio and Kentucky. 
The prices for the bulls averaged $353, and for the cows $480, 
amounting in the aggregate to $14,215. Several of the cattle went 
to Kentucky, some to Ohio, and others to Pennsylvania, and the 
States adjoining. 

Mr. Whitaker repeated his importations to some extent in 1838-9, 
but the average prices falling off in the latter year he made no further 
importations. The late Mr. William Xeff, of Cincinnati, Ohio, pur- 
chased several animals at Mr. Whitaker's sales, and successfully bred 
them. Many American recorded pedigrees trace to his herd. 

At the last sale, in 1839, eight cows sold for $3,672, being an aver- 
age of $459 each. The bull Sir Robert (we have not his pedigree 
number, if recorded) sold for $700. Several other animals were sold 
at the same time, but we have not seen any report of their prices. 

In 1 S3 7 to 1839, Messrs. James Shelby and Henry Clay, Jr., of 
Kentucky, made importations of several fine cattle, some of which 
they kept and bred for a time, and others were sold soon after their 
arrival in Kentucky. In 1S37 they imported ten cows and one bull, 
Don John, 426. At a sale of Mr. Clay, Jr., in Lexington, in the 
autumn of 1839, the following females were sold at a public auction 
with prices attached : 

Victoria, 2 rears old, > 1 3 : 

Victoria, 3 " " '-'- 

Venus, 5 " " 210 

Fanny, 1 " " 520 

Duchess, 4 mos. " 34° 

Jane, 9 " " 3°° 

Daphne, 5 " " (sick,) 230 

Beaut)-, 2 years " (doubtful breeder,) 176 

Average, $41 9X each. 

About the year 1S37 or '38, the late Mr. Henry Whitney, of Mor- 
ristown, N. J., imported two Short-horns. We have no account of 
the individual animals or their names, but from the records of their 
produce in Vol. 1, A. H. B., we infer that one of them was the bull 



188 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

Birmingham (3152), and the other was the cow Ringlet, by Belshaz- 
zar (1704). Whether any other cattle were imported by Mr. Whitney 
we have no information. 

About the same time as the above, the late Mr. William Gibbons, 
of Madison, N. J., imported the bull Majestic (2249), and the cow 
Volage (bred by Mr. Whitaker), by Charles (878). The cow bred 
the bull Zero 190 (by Majestic). Of her and her breeding we have 
no further account, as Mr. Gibbons took little fancy to cattle of any 
kind, his taste running to blooded horses, of which he bred several 
of high repute in the turf annals of his time. 

Dr. Samuel D. Martin, Pine Grove, Clark county, Ky., in addition 
to a herd of Short-horns which he had some years before established, 
in the year 1839, in conjunction with Messrs. Hubbard and J. P. 
Taylor, sent an order to England and imported four cows and a 
heifer calf, viz. : Beauty, by Laurel (2181), bred by Mr. Parker; 
Jessy, by Plenipo (4724), bred by A. L. Maynard ; Leonida, by Red 
Simon (2499), bred by Mr. Peacock ; Sprightly, by Fitz Roslyn (2026), 
bred by Mr. Paley ; and the calf Rosalie, by Cadet (1770), bred by 
Mr. Paley. Three of the cows were in calf before leaving England. 
Sprightly produced twin bulls : Specie (5289), and Speculation (5263), 
by Mendoza (4456) ; Beauty produced Bullion (3240), by Lofty 
(2217) ; and Jessy produced the heifer Jessamine, by Leonidas (421 1). 
These cows all proved good animals, and excellent milkers. Many 
of the produce are recorded in the American Herd Book. 

It is probable that about those years some other importations of a 
few Short-horns were made by gentlemen living in our Eastern cities, 
which were placed on their country places in their several vicinities, 
but as they were simply amateurs, caring little or nothing for pedi- 
grees, and the novelty of their possession soon abating, the cattle 
themselves, and their produce, pedigrees, and history, were ultimately 
absorbed, or lost in the common stock of the country. 

In the year 1837 or '38, Mr. John F. Sheaffe established a choice herd 
at his farm and country residence at New Hamburgh, Dutchess 
county, N. Y., on the Hudson. They were chiefly descendants from 
the New England importations. To them in 1843 he added several 
cows which he imported, among which was Seraphina, by Wharfdale 
(1578). The other names are not now recollected. 

In 1848 Mr. Sheaffe imported the bull Duke of Exeter, 449 (10152), 
then a calf, bred by Mr. John Stephenson, Wolviston, Eng., a valuable 
animal, chiefly of the Princess tribe of blood. This bull made a 
marked impression by way of improvement on his produce. He was 



sheaffe's and other importations. 189 

mainly yellow-red in color, and a remarkably fine handler. At two 
and a half years old, at the final sale of Mr. Sheaffe's herd, he became 
the property of the writer, and for two years longer bred with signal 
success. He died at six years old of inflammation in the kidneys. 

Mr. Sheaffe bred his herd successfully until 1850, when, going on a 
prolonged absence to Europe, the stock were sold, and distributed into 
several hands, who have since placed the pedigrees of their descend- 
ants in many pages of the American Herd Book. 

In 1838 the late Dr. John A. Poole, of New Brunswick, N. J., 
imported the cows Fanny, by Charley (1817); Maria, by Henwood 
(2 1 14), and possibly others. Dr. Poole's house was burned in 1842, 
and his Short-horn papers were destroyed. 

In 1843, and partially contemporary with Mr. Sheaffe, Mr. James 
Lenox, of New York, owning a fine country residence and farm 
adjoining Mr. Sheaffe, imported several good Short-horns. Among 
them were the bulls King Charles 2d, 84 (4154); Prince Albert, 133 
(4809) ; and cows Daffodil, by Sampson (5081) ; Gayly, by Sir Thomas 
Fairfax (5196); and Red Lady, by Hubback (2142); all from the 
herd of Jonas Whitaker, of Yorkshire. He bred them for several 
years. Although managing his stock by proxy, they were skillfully 
and successfully bred, but selling the estate and removing altogether 
to the city, his herd was dispersed into different hands, who still keep 
their pedigrees in the Herd Books. 

In the spring of 1S39, Rev. R. T. Dillard and Mr. Nelson Dudley, 
of Kentucky, went to England and selected for the Fayette, Kentucky, 
Importing Company, a superior lot of Short-horns. After their ar- 
rival home they were placed on the farm of David Sutton, near 
Lexington, and in July, 1S40, were sold at auction, as follows : 

Bulls. 

Carcase, 312 (3285), calved in 1837, sold to B. Gratz $725 

/Eolus, 200 (2938), calved in 1836, sold to R. Fisher, 610 

Eclipse (9069), calved in 1837, sold to R. Fisher, 1,050 

Crofton (3523), calved in 1839, sold to J. Downing, 155 

Prince Albert, 2065, (calf of Victoria,) 2 mos. old, sold to J. Flournoy, 350 

Washington (not recorded), calf, 85 

Nelson, 741, sold to P. Todhunter 610 

Orlando, 3225, (calf of Lady Eliza,) sold to H. Clay, Jr., Bourbon Co., 305 

Trojan, 110S0, (calf of Lily,) sold to Wheeland & Co., 150 

Bruce, 289, (calf of Avarilda,) sold to M. Williams, 315 

Milton, 713, (calf of Miss Maynard,) sold to James Gaines, 285 

Average, §422 each. $4,640 



I90 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 



Cows. 

Victoria (dam of Prince Albert), sold to R. Fisher, $1,750 

Miss Hopper, sold to Thomas Calmes, 270 

Elizabeth, sold to A. McClure, 505 

Maria (calf of Elizabeth), sold to J. B. Ford 310 

Miss Luck, sold to H. Clay, Jr., Bourbon county 800 

Fashion, sold to G. W. "Williams, 440 

Zela (calf of Fashion), sold to G. W. Williams, 445 

Splendor, sold to B. Gratz, 650 

Tulip, sold to A. McClure, 700 

Britannia, and heifer calf Dido, sold to H. T. Duncan, 375 

Isabella, sold to R. Fisher, 355 

Lady Eliza, sold to H. Clay, Jr., Bourbon county, 660 

Lily, sold to T. Calmes, 390 

Nancy, sold to C. J., Rogers, 730 

Avarilda, sold to John Allen, 920 

Beauty, sold to H. Clay, Fayette county 700 

Flora (calf of Beauty), sold to H. Clay, Fayette county, 410 

Miss Maynard, sold to A. McClure 1,005 

Jessica, sold to Joel Higgins, 330 

Rosabella, sold to William A. Warner, 465 

Average, $610 each. $12,210 

Of these animals Mercer county took 5 ; Scott county 5 ; Fayette 
county 8 ; Jessamine county 4; Clark county 2 ; Bourbon county 5. 
Where the remaining 2 went the account does not state. 

Under the depression of the money market of the country at the 
time, although at lower prices than paid at some previous sales of the 
kind, the result may be considered a good one. 

In the Franklin (Ky.) Farmer of June, 1839, it is stated that Lewis 
Shirley, of Louisville, Ky., imported from England, and brought there 
the bulls General Chasse, calved in 1834; Liverpool, calved in 1838; 
and another, called Young Matchem, all having good pedigrees. Only 
a few pedigrees in A. H. B. trace their lineage to these bulls. 
It is also stated in the same paper, that Mr. Shirley in the autumn of 
1839, sold the bull Velocipede (imported in 1836) to Kendall & Co., 
Elkton, Ky., for $1,500; and the bull Liverpool to a company in 
Nelson county, Ky., for $1,000. 

In February, 1840, Messrs. Wait & Bagg brought to New York 
from England, seven Short-horns, bulls and cows. One of the cows, 
Empress, by Cyrus (3538), was sold to Mr. George Vail, Troy, N. Y., 
and in the succeeding year they took others of the importation to 



DECLENSION OF SHORT-HORN PRICES. 191 

Kentucky. Pedigrees of their descendants are frequently recorded 
in the pages of the American Herd Book. 

With the year 1840, under the continued depression of the finan- 
cial interests of the country at large, the spirit so active during several 
previous years in cultivating the Short-horns gradually waned, and 
further importations ceased. For several succeeding years the prices 
of meats were unprecedentedly low. Mess pork fell to $10, and 
even less, per barrel, in our principal markets, and the dressed car- 
casses of swine were dull of sale at $2.50 to $3.00 per hundred 
pounds, while beef of good quality was worth even less, and a drug 
throughout. As a consequence, there was little or no encouragement 
for breeding Short-horns. Under this depressed condition of affairs 
hundreds of well-bred bull calves were castrated for steers, and many 
cow calves spayed and reared for the shambles. Prices for even the 
best blooded animals were merely nominal ; public sales were scarcely 
made at all as in past years, and private sales infrequent. Nor was 
the depression for a few years only, but continuous down to nearly or 
quite the year 1850. One hundred to two hundred dollars per head 
would buy the choice of almost any herd, bull or cow, in the country. 
As a specimen of the times, the writer received a commission from 
the firm of A. B. Allen & Co., Agricultural Merchants in New York 
city, in October, 1850, to select fifteen or twenty good breeding Short- 
horns, bulls and heifers, to fill an order for the Island of Cuba, where 
an experiment was to be tried with them on the high ranges of coun- 
try near its eastern coast. We went into the Scioto valley of Ohio, 
and from the herds of some of its best breeders purchased several 
beautiful (in calf) heifers, of two to three years old past, red, red and 
white, and roan in color — as all white was objected to — for $50 to $100 
each, and several bulls at like prices. Some of them were descend- 
ants of the Kentucky importation of 1S17, with several crosses 0/ 
the Ohio Company bulls and their descendants of the 1834 impor- 
tation in their pedigrees, and others, pure descendants from the latter. 
Every animal was of our own selection. We paid the full price 
asked for them, and could have quadrupled the number, or even 
more, at the same prices. In Kentucky, New York and New Eng- 
land, Short-horn values were no better, and many breeders who had 
begun rearing them but a few years before became disgusted with 
their stock, turned their choice bred cows into the dairies, put them 
to common bulls, and sold off their calves remorselessly to the butcher. 
During this depressing period numerous good pedigrees were lost, as 
not being worth preserving, and many valuable families of this lordly 



IQ2 HISTORY OF THE SIIORT-IIORNS. 

race became almost, if not wholly, extinct. A newly imported ani- 
mal, although Short-horns were then suffering under depressed prices 
in England, would hardly pay the expenses of transportation across 
the ocean from any sale which could be made of it here. 

Si ill, the low prices of meats in the markets were not all the diffi- 
culty. 'The taste of our stock breeders had at the time been but 
scantily cultivated. Shrewd, discriminating men knew the value of 
Short-horns, and the immense improvement they were capable of 
giving to the common herds of the country; but when the great mass 
of farmers were either too dull or too ignorant to buy, there was little 
or no encouragement to breed them. Thus the choice herds so highly 
prized hut a lew years before lay dormant. It was but a, repetition 
ol the result of many valuable enterprises in the agricultural world — 
a spasm, an excitement incident lo the trial of a new thing, followed 
by an indifference, a mistaken and culpable neglect on the part of 
the many; but still kept alive by the hopeful foresight of the few 
who held persistently on to their herds, anticipating a brighter day 
when their anxious efforts would be amply rewarded, as the sequel 
will show. 



THE II' N.VIVAL IN AMERICA. J 93 



CHAPTER X. 
Revival 01 the Short-horns en America. 

The year 1852 dawned upon a more cheerful prospect in agricul- 
tural pursuits than that of the last teu or twelve years preceding it 
Meats had gradually increased in pri< e, as a foreign demand to a con- 
siderable extent had opened for our surplus provisions; our farm< rs 
had measurably recovered from their depressed condition, and a 
spirit of improvement in their neat stork now graduallj 
among the cattle growers of the country, particularly in the States of 
New York, Ohio and J-Cent.ur.ky. Those Short-horn breeders ivho 
had tena< iou fly held on to and cherished the blood of their favo 
herds — and taken in the a ere quite a number of 

them — gathered their choice things together with renewed care, and 
with cheerful hope of better times in the future, set themselves about 
their improvement both by accelerated increase and painstaking in 
their breeding. Had not the Short-horn race, by their inherent qual- 
ities of excellence, borne up against the neglect under which many 
of them for years past had suffered, some of them in their depr< 
appearance and careless breeding would scarcely be recognized as 
high-bred cattle at all, although the aristocratic blood of many genera- 
tions still coursed through their veins and remained intact as ever. 
Vet by the still hopeful interest, and care of their breeders under 
the e of a discriminating judgment, the neglected herds rap- 

idly resumed their wonted comeliness of form and robustness of 
condition, and showed their excellence as of old. 

About the year 1852 a demand for them gradually sprung up, and 
on a deli 1 rvey of the situation a new impulse w; d to 

further importations from abroad. Anticipating a movement of this 
kind, in tl [849 Mr. Ambro of Batavia, X. V. vent to 

Ei -vand and purchased the valuable bull 3d Duke of Cambridge, 1034 
(5941), DJ Duk( of Northumberland (1040), then eight years old, of 
his breeder, Mr. Thon ington. This bull 

of the Duchess, Princess, and Waterl< ibined. Aftei 

b3 



194 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

arrival in America he became the joint property of Col. J. M. Sher- 
wood, of Auburn, N. Y., and Mr. Stevens, and was kept several years, 
until he died on Col. Sherwood's farm. He did much valuable ser- 
vice as a sire. 

At the same time with 3d Duke of Cambridge came the bull 
calf Duke of Exeter, 449 (10 15 2), bred by Mr. John Stephenson, for 
Mr. J. F. Sheaffe, New Hamburgh, Dutchess county, N. Y., previ- 
ously mentioned. 

With the above named bulls were brought out from the herd of 
Mr. Stephenson the yearling heifers Princess 2d, by General Sale 
(8099) ; Princess 3d, by Napier (6238) ; and Red Rose 2d, by Napier 
(6238). The latter was sold to Col. Sherwood, and soon afterwards 
Red Rose 2d gave birth to Red Rose 4th, by Earl of Chatham 
(10176). Red Rose 2d was a remarkable milker (a small cow, from 
her early breeding, and thin in flesh from heavy milking), having 
made 49 pounds of butter in 25 successive days in May and June, 
185 1, when 4 years old, with her second calf. To the above may 
be added Red Rose 3d, by General Sale. This heifer died without 
produce. 

With these also came out the bull Lord Vane Tempest, 669^ 
(10469), sold to Col. Sherwood. 

In the year 1850 were imported the bull Earl of Seaham, 1499 
(10181), the joint property of Mr. Stevens and Col. Sherwood, after- 
wards purchased by Rev. John A. Gano, of Bourbon county, Ky., in 
whose possession he died, leaving some valuable descendants. 

With Earl of Seaham came also the bull Wolviston, 1109, after- 
wards sold by Mr. Stevens to Mr. Ashton, of Canada West. 

With the above bulls were imported the cow Princess 4th, by 
Napier (6238) ; Waterloo 5th (bred by Thomas Bates), by Duke 
of Northumberland (1940); Wild Eyes 5th (bred by Mr. Bates), by 
Short Tail (2621). The two last named cows died after their arrival 
in America, without issue. 

In 185 1 Mr. Stevens imported the bull calf Earl Vane, 464, by Earl 
of Chatham (10176), and the cow Princess 1st (5 years old), by Napier 
(6238); and in 1852 came out the cow Lady Sale 2d, by Earl of 
Chatham (10176). Sold to Col. Sherwood. 

In the same year Col. Sherwood imported the cow Tuberose 2d, 
by Earl of Antrim (10174). 

All the above animals of the Stevens-Sherwood importation (ex- 
cepting the three bred by Mr. Bates) were bred by Mr. Stephenson, 
Wolviston, Eng., and of his Princess tribe. 



SUCCESSIVE IMPORTATIONS. 195 

In some year, shortly previous to 1S4S, a Mr. Oliver, of Westchester 
county, N. Y., imported the bull Marius, 684, bred by Earl Spencer, 
England. He was exhibited at the New York State Agricultural 
Show, in Buffalo, 184S, by Colonel L. G. Morris, and there sold to 
Mr. David Harrold, of South Charleston, Clark county, Ohio, into 
which State he went and did good service for some years. Our 
impression is that one or two heifers were brought out with the bull, 
but of the fact we have no particular account. 

About the year 185 1 or '52, Mr. Lorillard Spencer, of New York, im- 
ported the young bull Augustus, 225 (1125), bred by G. D. Trotter, 
Middlesex, Eng. ; Duke of Atholl, 44 (10150), bred by Thos. Bates; 
and Woldsman, 1108 (11056), bred by Mr. Topham, Spilsby, Eng., 
and the heifers Faraway, by 3d Duke of Oxford (9047); Jean, by 
Chevalier (10050); Sonsie 8th, by 2d Cleveland Lad (3408), and 
possibly one or two others. These he bred for a few years with some 
others acquired at home, when he finally disposed of his herd, and 
gave up further Short-horn breeding. 

In the month of May, 1850, the sale of the late Mr. Bates' herd 
was held in England, by his executors, as related in a previous chapter, 
at which Messrs. Morris and Becar, of New York, were present, and 
bought three Oxford cows and heifers, viz. : Oxford 5th, by Duke of 
Northumberland (1940); Oxford 6th, by 2d Duke of Northumber- 
land (3646); Oxford 13th, by 3d Duke of York (10166). Of these, 
Oxford 5th and 10th, were taken by Col. Morris, and Oxford 13th by 
Mr. Becar. Col. Morris also bought of another party the bull Balco, 
227 (9918), bred by Mr. Bates. 

These gentlemen also purchased of another party in England, the 
bull Romeo (136:9) on joint account. 

Col. Morris further purchased of various others the bulls Marquis 
of Carrabas (n 7 89) ; The Lord of Eryholme (12205), an d Billy Pitt 
(9967) ; also the cows Beauty of Brawith, by Emperor (6973) ; Bloom, 
by Sir Leonard (10827); and Romelia, by Flageolet (9130). 

Mr. Becar also bought of other parties the cows Actress, by Hark- 
away (9184); Apricot, by 3d Duke of York (10166); Garland, by 
Pestalozzi (10603); Lady Barrington 12th, by 4th Duke of York 
(10167); and Lady Booth, by Chilton (10054). These animals were 
all shipped to America, where they were established on the farms of 
their respective owners, and most, if not all the females bred success- 
fully, producing a numerous progeny. 

At the great Tortworth Court sale of the herd of the late Earl 
Ducie, in the year 1853, noticed in a preceding chapter, Messrs. 



I96 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

Morris and Becar bought the bull Duke of Gloster, 2763 (11382), 
and the cow Duchess 66th, by 4th Duke of York (10167), which 
they brought home and bred with their previously established herd, 
until the death of Mr. Becar, which most unfortunately occurred in 
the year 1854, in the full maturity of his vigor and usefulness. Mr. 
Becar was a native of France, and emigrating when a young man to 
the city of New York, he established himself as a merchant, which 
occupation he for many years successfully pursued. He married- an 
American wife, whose family held large possessions of land on Long 
Island, and were among its most intelligent farmers. In possession 
of one of those attractive farms Mr. Becar cultivated alike its acres 
and his Short-horns with assiduity and success, during the few years 
which he devoted to the pursuit. Soon after his death, his late 
partner, Col. Morris, purchased his interest in the herd, and a few 
months afterwards (selling out meantime many valuable young bulls 
to various breeders in different States) he transferred them in one 
entire sale to Mr. Samuel Thorne, at Thorndale, Dutchess county, N.Y. 

Anticipating a year or two of time, we follow the herd of Messrs. 
Morris and Becar into the hands of Mr. Thorne, and merging them 
in his own recently well-selected herd, we must pass to an account of 
that gentleman's Short-horn importations and breeding. 

In the year 1850 Mr. Jonathan Thorne, of the city of New York, 
having on his extensive farm, at Thorndale, a couple of Short-horn 
cows recently bought of Mr. Vail, at Troy, sent out to his son, Edwin 
Thorne, then in England, to purchase and send him a Short-horn 
bull. The order was filled by the importation of St. Lawrence, 1005 
(12037), bred by Capt. Pelham, of the Isle of Wight. The young 
bull, calved only in the previous November, arrived in America early 
in the spring of 185 1, and was taken to Mr. Thome's farm, where he 
remained until of breeding age. He was afterwards sold to the late 
Dr. Elisha Warfield, near Lexington, Ky., where he did good service 
in his herd for some years. 

In the summer of 1852, Mr. Thorne received, on an order which 
he sent to Mr. Robert Bell, of England, two heifers, Forget-me-not 
2d, by 4th Duke of York (10167), and Countess, by 3d Duke of 
Oxford (9047); also from J. S. Tanqueray the young cow Ellen 
Gwynne, by Sir Harry (10819). This last named cow (pregnant 
before shipped), after her arrival in America, produced the bull calf 
Young Balco, 1124, got by Balco (9918), and soon afterwards died 
from a quantity of nails found in her stomach, after death. 



MR. THORNE'S IMPORTATIONS. 197 

In the spring of 1853, Mr. Samuel Thome (son of Jonathan) — 
having assumed charge of the farm and Short-horn stock — in com- 
pany with the late Mr. F. M. Rotch, residing in Morris, Otsego 
county, N. Y., sailed for England in quest of some Short-horns, " as 
good as could be found, without regard to the prices to be paid for 
them." In the ensuing October Mr. Thorne brought out the bul 
Grand Duke, 545 (10284), bought of Mr. Bolden, and two cows. 
Duchess 59th and 6Sth, bought at Lord Ducie's sale, previously no- 
ticed; also the cows Peri, by Grand Duke (10284), bought of Mr. 
Bolden ; Frederika, by Upstart (9760), and Lalla Rookh, by The 
Squire (12217), bred by Mr. Townley; Aurora, by 3d Duke of York 
(10166); Mystery, by Usurer (9763); and Darling, by Grand Duke 
(102S4). The vessel on which the cattle were shipped for America 
had a tempestuous passage. Duchess 68th was killed outright by the 
falling of a mast, and Peri had one hip knocked down, two ribs 
broken, and lost one horn. This accident, however, did not prevent 
her from breeding successfully after her arrival in America. The 
bull Harry Lorequer, bred by Mr. Fawkes, also purchased by Mr. 
Thorne, and embarked on the same ship, was lost by stress of 
weather. 

The cow Duchess 64th, which was purchased by Mr. Thorne at 
the same (Lord Ducie's) sale, with the before named Duchesses, was 
left in England until the succeeding year, having meantime dropped 
her calf, 2d Grand Duke, 2181 (12961), which, by previous arrange- 
ment, was the property of Mr. Bolden. She soon after came to 
America. Her calf, 2d Grand Duke, became the property of Mr. 
Thorne, afterwards, in the year 1855, soon after the accident, which 
rendered his previous Grand Duke (10284) useless, at the price of 
1000 guineas, the same which Mr. Thorne paid for the latter at the 
time of the Ducie sale. 

All efforts to restore the usefulness of Grand Duke having failed, 
be was slaughtered in the year 1857, and made upwards of 1400 
pounds, net weight, although in only moderate condition. 

The ten animals (exclusive of 2d Grand Duke) of Mr. Thome's 
first purchase in 1853, comprising Grand Duke and the three Duch- 
esses, cost 3,600 guineas — upwards of $18,000 — probably the most 
costly purchase ever made by an American down to that time, though 
several purchases of cows have since been made at higher prices. 

Mr. Thome's next importation was made, in the year 1854, con- 
sisting of nine cows and heifers, viz. : Lady Millicent, by Laud- 
able (92S2) ; Sylphide, by Pestalozzi (10603); Cypress, by Lord of 



I98 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

Brawith (10465) ; Agnes, by Lord of Brawith (10465) ; Cherry, by Lord 
of Brawith (10465); Constantia, by Lord of Brawith (10465); Diana 
Gwynne, by Duke of Lancaster (10929); Lady of Atholl, by Duke 
of Atholl (10150) ; and Dinah Gwynne, by Balco, 227 (9918). These 
all came out in good condition and proved successful breeders, with 
the exception of Sylphide, which produced nothing after leaving 
England. 

In November, 1855, as before mentioned, Mr. Thorne brought out 
the young bull 2d Grand Duke, also the bull Neptune, 1917 (11847), 
bred by Mr. John Booth. The bull Duke of Dorset, bred by Lord 
Feversham, was also bought by Mr. Thorne, but not shipped until the 
summer of 1856. He unfortunately died on the voyage to America. 

In the summer of 1856 Mr. Thorne purchased at the sale of Sir 
Charles Knightly, in England, the cows Blouzelind, by Earl of 
Dublin (10178); Elgitha, by Balco (9918); and Mrs. Flathers, by 
Earl of Dublin (10178); also heifers Buttercup 2d, by Horatio 
(10335), and Miss Buttercup, by Master Butterfly (13311), both bred 
by and purchased of Col. Townley, at the price of 1,000 guineas — 
over $5,000 for the five; also the cows Dewdrop, by Financier 
(9122); Darlington 6th, by 4th Duke of Oxford (11387); and Maria 
Louisa, by Hopewell (10332), bred by and purchased of other parties. 
These animals all arrived safely at Mr. Thome's farm, bred success- 
fully, and left many descendants. 

In 1857, Mr. Edwin Thorne, then in England, purchased and sent 
out to his brother Samuel, the bull Grand Turk, 2935 (12969), bred 
by Mr. Bolden, Lancashire. 

In the spring of the same year Mr. Thorne purchased, as previ- 
ously mentioned, of Col. Morris, Mt. Fordham, N. Y., the combined 
herds of Messrs. Morris and Becar — who had imported largely from 
England — numbering 53 animals, including the Duchesses 66th, 
71st, and Duchess ( ) (afterwards recorded in E. H. B. as Duch- 
ess of Fordham); the cows Oxfords 5th, 6th, 13th, 17th and 20th; 
Maid of Oxford, Bride of Oxford, Romeo's Oxford, Gloster's Oxford, 
and Beauty of Oxford, together with bulls imported Duke of Gloster, 
2763 (11382); Fordham Duke of Oxford, 2863, and Baron of Ox- 
ford, 2525. 

In the year 1854, 2d Grand Duke, 2181 (12 961), having become 
useless, was slaughtered at Mr. Thome's farm, being then eleven 
years old. 

Having some years previous sold some of his Duchess and Oxfords, 
bulls and females, to Mr. James O. Sheldon, of Geneva, N. Y., which 
the latter had successfully bred, in the year 1867 Mr. Thorne made 



R. A. ALEXANDER'S IMPORTATIONS. I99 

a final sale of his entire herd, about forty in number, to Mr. James 
O. Sheldon, Geneva, N. Y., at the gross sum of $42,300. 

About the years 1S50 to 1853, inclusive, (for we have been unable 
to obtain the exact dates of his importations,) the late Mr. R. A. 
Alexander, of Woodford county, Ky., -who had for some years, then 
past, been a breeder of Short-horns, obtained from different herds in 
that State, began an extensive importation of Short-horns from Eng- 
land onto his farm, and extending through several successive years. 
His imported animals were selected from several different prominent 
breeders. Of these importations, on referring to his catalogue of 
the year 1856, we find there were eleven bulls, and a much larger 
number of cows. He was aided in his selections by Mr. Strafford, 
editor of the English Herd Book, and with the ample means at his 
command, a choice assortment from some noted tribes was obtained. 
Among them we find, from the somewhat incomplete catalogues which 
we have been able to obtain, the following : 

Bulls. — Lord John (11728); 2d Duke of Atholl (11376); Grand 
Master (1296S); Baron Martin (12444); Fantachini (12862); Mickey 
Free, 8626 (A. H. B.); Doctor Buckingham (14405); Duke of Air- 
drie, 9798 (12730); El Hakim, 2814 (A. H. B.). To these he added 
some other bulls by purchases from late imported herds into 
Kentucky. 

Cows. — Sweet Mar}-, by Rufus (6428); Peeress, by Lord Marmion 
(8244); Nightingale, by Prince Alfred (8422); Victoria, by Diamond 
(591S); Filbert, by 2d Cleveland Lad (3408); Jubilee, by Lycurgus 
(7180); Lady Laura, by Laudable (9282); Maid Marion, by Robin 
Hood (9555); Vellum, by Abraham Parker (9856); Forget-me-not, 
by 2d Cleveland Lad (3408); Princess 4th, by Revolution (10713); 
Tizzy, by Robin Hood (9555) ; Beatrice, by Attraction (9912) ; Alice 
Wiley, by Rumor (7456) ; Lady Barrington 13th, by 4th Duke of 
York (10167); Duchess of Atholl, by 2d Duke of Oxford (9046); 
Graceful, by Earl of Dublin (1017S) ; Pearlette, by Benedict (7828); 
Rose, by Puritan (9523); Buttercup, by Puritan (9523); Victoria 
20th, by Broken Horn (12500); Joyful, by Lycurgus (7180); Emma, 
by Fair Eclipse (11456); Bonny Lass, by Earl of Dublin (10178); 
Jubilee 2d, by Marquis of Rockingham (10506); Filligree, by Abra- 
ham Parker (9856); Lady Gulnare, by Senator (8548); Prune, by 
Lord Lieutenant (11734); Ferella, by Grand Duke (10284); Grisi, 
by Grand Duke (10284); Kathleen Bawn, by Holcombe (10384); 
Bessy Howard, by Fitzwalter (10232); Miss Wiley 2d, by Prince 
Royal (S42S); Jessy 3d, by Duke of Albany (10149); Miss Townley, 



200 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

by Brunei (9999); Coquette, by Monk (11824); Doria Picola, by 
Duke of Albany (10149); Mary Cattley, by Puritan (9523); Alberta, 
by Holcomb (10324); Christine Cattley, by De Grey (11346); Lydia 
Languish, by Duke of Gloster (11382) ; Sally-in-our-Alley, by Bride- 
groom (11203) ; Rosabelle, by Bridegroom (11203) ; Sunrise, by Abra- 
ham Parker (9856); Canny, by Will Watch (12307) ; Lady Valentine, 
by Harbinger (10207); Frances Fairfax, by Crusade (7938); Zara, 
by Bridegroom (11203) ; Constance, by Bridegroom (11 203) ; Scotia, 
by Lancaster Comet (11663); Minna, by Bridegroom (11203); Pru- 
nella, by Duke of Bolton (12738). 

To these numerous selections were added several more pur- 
chases from other herds imported into Kentucky, which, with his 
native bred Short-horns he had for some years previous been cultiva- 
ting, comprised the largest Short-horn herd then in the United States. 
Neither money nor pains were spared in the selection of his stock, 
or in their subsequent propagation. Many sales were made from it, 
both in Kentucky and other States, and its reputation was among the 
best in the country. 

Mr. Alexander died, unmarried, in the year 1867, in the prime of 
his life and usefulness. His large Woodburn estate of some 3,000 
acres, together with his cattle, sheep, swine, and valuable stud of 
blood and trotting horses, fell into the possession of his brother, Mr. 
A. J. Alexander, who still maintains, if not in numbers, yet in their 
integrity of blood and quality, the descendants of the valuable stock 
which the earlier proprietor had so carefully collected. 

In the year 1852 a number of gentlemen in the Scioto valley, in 
Ohio, formed an association, sent out one or more agents and made 
an importation of near 20 Short-horns, bulls and cows. Most of 
them, 16 in number, were sold at the farm of the late Dr. Arthur 
Watts, near Chillicothe, at public auction, under the attendance of a 
numerous company, as follows : 

Bulls. 
Nobleman, 1932, sold to John J. Vanmeter, Pike county, Ohio,. . . . $2,510 
Master Bellville (1 1795), sold to Ab ram Maypool, George Renick, 
Harness Renick, and Alexander Renick, Ross and Pickaway 

counties, Ohio, 2,005 

Lord Nelson, 664, sold to John L. Myers, Fayette county, Ohio, . . . 1,825 

Alderman, 204, sold to Alex. Waddle, Clark county, Ohio, 1,150 

Gam-boy (11503), sold to M. L. Sullivant, Columbus, Ohio, 1,400 

Count Fashion, 381, sold to N. Perrill, Clinton county, Ohio 2,075 

Young Whittington, 1165, sold to Arthur Watts, Chillicothe, Ohio, 450 

Rising Sun, 5130, sold to G. M. Herodh, Scioto county, Ohio, 1,300 

Isaac, 589, sold to G. M. Gregg, Pickaway county, Ohio, 600 



NORTHERN KENTUCKY IMPORTATIONS. 201 

Cows. 
Moss Rose, by Stapleton (2698), sold to Alex. Waddle, Clark Co., O. $1,200 

Strawberry,* by , sold to Geo. W. Renick, Ross county, Ohio, 1,000 

Raspberry,* by , sold to Geo. W. Gregg, Pickaway county, O. 1,110 

Sunrise,* by , sold to John J. Vanmeter, Pike county, Ohio,. . . 1,230 

Mary, by Lord of the Manor (10466), sold to Alex. Waddle, Clark 

county, Ohio, 1,650 

Enchantress, by Leopold, son of DTsraeli (7967), sold to Harness 

and Alexander Renick, Pickaway county, Ohio 900 

Blue Bonnet, by Earl of Antrim (10174), sold to Felix W. Renick, 

Pickaway county, Ohio, 1,225 

Average, $1,352 each. $21,630 

The above prices may be considered extraordinarily high for die 
time ; but as the competition was among the stockholders of the 
importation chiefly, if not altogether, their dividend of profit much 
reduced, to themselves, the prices which they paid for them. 

In 1853, The Northern Kentucky Association commissioned Messrs. 
Charles T. Garrard, Nelson Dudley, and Solomon Vanmeter, who 
went to England and selected 9 bulls and 15 cows, from among the 
best English herds, and brought them to Kentucky in July of that 
year. They were sold at public auction soon after their arrival. 
The list consisted of the following : 

Bulls. 
Young Chilton, 1131 (1127S), sold to Dr. Breckinridge and B. and 

W. Warfield, Fayette county, Ky $3,005 

Diamond, 416 (11357), sold to Brutus J. Clay,& Co., Bourbon Co., 6,001 

The Count (12191), sold to Strawder Goff, Clark county, 2,575 

Orontes 2d, 1966 (11877), sold to R. A. Alexander, Woodford Co., 4,525 

Fusileer, 1584, sold to R. W. Scott, Franklin county, 1,425 

Senator 2d, 958 (136S7), sold to John and Albert Allen, Fayette Co. 2,000 
Bellville 3d, 1246, sold to Sutton and Coleman, Fayette county,. . . 1,500 
Challenger, 324, sold to Isaac Vanmeter, T. L. Cunningham, Solo- 
mon Vanmeter, and Wm. R. Duncan, Clark county, 4,850 

Fortunatus, 1564, sold to Messrs. Vanmeter, Fayette county, 1,800 

Yorkshire Maynard, 2401 (14043), sold to Robt. S. Taylor, Clark Co. 1,000 

Cows. 
Lady Stanhope, by Earl Stanhope (5966), sold to Brutus J. Clay, 

Bourbon county, Ky., $1,500 

Lady Fairy, by Laudable (9262), sold to Dr. Breckenridge and B. 

and W. Warfield, Fayette county, 1,100 

Roan Duchess, by Whittington (12229), s °ld to William H. Brand 

and John Allen, Fayette county, 900 

♦These cows not having been recorded, unless they have since occurred as dams in other 
pedigrees, in A. H. B., we are unable to name their sires, their names not being inserted in the 
catalogue of their sale. — L. F. A. 



202 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

Goodness, by Orontes (4623), sold to Albert Allen, Fayette county, $2,025 

Gem, by Broker (9993), sold to T. L. Cunningham, Bourbon Co., 

and S. Vanmeter, Clark county, 825 

Equity, by Lord George (10439), sold to R. A. Alexander, Wood- 
ford county, 1,000 

Necklace, by Duke of Atholl (10150), sold to H. Clay, Jr., Bour- 
bon county, 805 

Bracelet, Twin Sister to Necklace, sold to M. M. Clay, Bourbon 

county, 75° 

Mazurka, by Harbinger (10297), sold to R. A. Alexander, Wood- 
ford county, 75° 

Lady Caroline, by Newtonian, 745, sold to B. J. Clay, Bourbon Co. 1,825 

Duchess of Sutherland, by Captain Edwards (8929), sold to Wm. 

H. Brand and John Allen, Fayette county 800 

Maid of Melrose, by Lord Marquis (10459), s °ld to Sam. Humph- 
reys, Woodford county, 2,000 

Muffin, by Usurer (9763), sold to D. H. Coulter and W. A. Smith, 

Scott county, 535 

Orphan Nell, by Ruby (10760), sold to John Hill and John A. Gano, 

Bourbon county 1,000 

Flattery, by 4th Duke of York (10167), sold to Wm. R. Duncan, 

Clark county, 815 

Near the close of the year 1853 an association in Scott county, 
Ky., made an importation consisting of 4 bulls and 7 cows. They 
were sold at auction, as follows : 

Bulls. 
Pathfinder, 805, sold to W. B. Webb and R. D. Ford, Scott Co., Ky., $860 
Baron Feversham, by Diamond, 416, sold to Estell, Madison 

county, 1,525 

Captain Lawson, 310, sold to A. D. Offutt and W. D. Crockett, 

Scott county, 400 

Cunningham, 1415 (12671), sold to S. J. Salyers, Fayette county,. . 865 

Cows. 
Yorkshire Rose, by General Fairfax (11 5 19), sold to P. L. Cable, 

Scott county, 425 

Venus, by Fair Eclipse (11456), sold to J. Hill, Bourbon county,. . 710 
Carnation, by Budget, by Bumper (10005), sold to Charles W. 

Lines, Fayette county, 610 

Enterprise, by Fair Eclipse (1 1450), sold to Jas. C. Lemon, Scott Co. 710 
Rosamond, by Sir Charles Napier (10816), sold to Silas Corbin, 

Bourbon county, 575 

Cameo, by Arrow (9906), sold to W. Boswell, Bourbon county,, . . . 450 
Casket, by Arrow (9906), sold to W. D. Offutt, Scott county 405 

In the year 1853, an association of breeders was formed in Madi- 
son county, Ohio, and an agent sent to England who brought out 15 
bulls and 9 cows. The selections were of good quality, and they were 



MADISON COUNTY, OHIO, IMPORTATIONS. 203 

sold at London, Ohio, at public auction, 27th September the same 
year, a few weeks after their arrival. We were present at the sale ; 
the stock were in fine condition ; a large audience were in attend- 
ance, and the bidding spirited. The following is a report : 

Bulls. 
Thornberry, 1035 (12222), sold to F. W. and H. Renick, Pickaway 

county, Ohio $875 

Sheffielder, 961^, sold to J. W. Robinson, Madison county, 1,800 

Mario, 6S3^, sold to Robert Reed, Madison county, Ohio, 1,550 

Marquis, 6S7 (11787), sold to James Fullington, Union county,. . . . 3,000 

Starlight, 1003 (12146), sold to Charles Phellis, Madison county,. . . 3,000 

Beauclerc (not recorded), sold to D. M. Creighton, Madison Co.,. . 750 

Symmetry, 1019, sold to J. G., W. A. and R. G. Dun, Madison Co., 1,150 

Farmer Boy, 2S42, sold to Joseph Reyburn, Madison county, 925 

Prince Albert, 32S4, sold to J. F. Chenoweth, Madison county,. . . . 300 

Colonel, 350, sold to J. G., W. A. and R. G. Dun, Madison county, 1,350 

Sportsman (not recorded), sold to James Foster, Madison county, . . 700 

Prince Edward, 864, sold to M. B. Wright, Fayette county, 475 

Rocket, 921^?, sold to David Watson, Union county, 425 

Splendor, 997^, sold to F. A. Yocum, Madison county, 500 

Duke of Liverpool (not recorded), sold to George G. McDonald, 

Madison county 555 

Average, $1,157 each. $17,355 

Cows. 

Victoria,* sold to J. Q. Winchell, Madison county, $600 

Picotee,* sold to Jesse Watson, Madison county, 1,275 

Stapleton Lass,* sold to Jesse Watson, Madison county, 1,350 

Princess, by Belted Will (67S0), and calf, sold to William Watson, 

Clark county, 690 

Miss Hilton, by Headland, sold to David Watson, Union county, 875 

Alexandrina, by Magistrate (104S7), sold to D. Watson, Union Co., 560 
Blossom, by Teeswater Lad, a son of Lord Barmpton (11703), 

sold to David Watson, Union county, 650 

Yorkshire Dairy Cow,* sold to Joseph Negley, Clark county, 425 

Monsoon,* sold to Joseph Reyburn, Madison county 295 

Average, $747 each. $6,720 

In the year 1853, Dr. A. C. Stevenson, of Green Castle, Indiana, 
imported from England two bulls : Prince of Wales, 876, and Fancy 
Boy, 492 ; and four cows: Straw T berry 5th, by Deliverance (11347); 
Bloom and Violet, by Master Bellville (11795); and Miss Welbourn 
(Vol. 2, p. 485, A. H. B.), by St. John. These animals and many of 
their descendants are recorded in the several volumes of the Ameri- 
can Herd Book. 

* The pedigrees of these cows did not come out with them. — L. F. A. 



204 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

About the year 1853 or '54, the late Thomas Richardson, an Irish 
merchant in New York city, imported several good Short-horns, with 
various other stock, among which were the bull Duke of Cambridge, 
1469 (12746), and cows Bijou, by Crown Prince (10087); Fanella, by 
Baron Warlaby (7813); Fanny Warlaby, by Baron Warlaby (7813); 
Harmony, by Crown Prince (10087); Laura, by Hector (13002); 
Rachel, by Hopewell (10332), and perhaps some others, which he 
kept on his farm at Westchester. Several of them were recorded in 
the American Herd Book. Mr. Richardson was a spirited and liberal 
breeder. His herd was sold a short time previous to his death, which 
occurred a few years after making his importation. 

In the year 1854, the Society of Shakers, Pleasant Hill, Ky., im- 
ported the bull Duke of Cambridge, 447. They had previously, in 
1840, in connection with the great statesman, Henry Clay, bought for 
$1,000, the bull Orozimbo, 786, imported by Mr. Shepherd, of Vir- 
ginia, in the year 1834. This bull the Shakers bred in their extensive 
herd. In 1840 they also bought 8 cows, imported by Mr. Gambel, 
at New Orleans, La. Among them were Daisy, by Barnaby (1678), 
and Splendor, by Symmetry (2723). The names of the six other 
cows are not given. 

In 1854, Messrs. Wilson and Searight, imported from Ireland into 
Ohio, the bull Lord Eglinton, 1795 ; Deceiver, 401 (11340), and pos- 
sibly another or two bulls, together with some cows, among which 
were White Rose, by Sir Robert Peel (9658) ; Laura, by Lord Clar- 
endon (10434); Lady Gage, by Deceiver (11340), and some others. 

In the year 1854, the Society of Shakers, at Union Village, Warren 
county, Ohio, imported, chiefly from the herd of James Douglass, of 
Scotland, 12 Short-horns — 6 bulls (including Duke of Cambridge, 
447, before mentioned, belonging to the Shakers at Pleasant Hill) 
and 6 cows. Their names are as follows : 

Bulls. — Duke of Southwick, 450 ; Crusader, 387 ; Morning Star, 
725; Hearts of Oak, 1646; Economist, 2809. 

Cows. — Blanche, by Twin (10981) ; Violante, by Trumpeter (10978) ; 
Margaret, by Fitz Adolphus Fairfax (9124); Farewell, by Prince 
Charlie, 862; Beatrice; Lady Blanche, by Matadore (11800). 

The same Society also imported in 1855 : 

Bull. — Captain Balco, 13 16 (12546). 

Cows. — Scottish Belle Center, by Kossuth (11646); Bellview, by 
Capt. Balco (12546); Florentia, by Trory (13901). 

Also in 1856 : 

Bulls. — King of Trumps, 1739; Hawthorn Hero, 1644X. 



CLINTON COUNTY, OHIO, IMPORTATIONS. 205 

Cows. — Hawthorn Blossom, by Hudibras (10339); Flora Mclvor, 
by New Year's Gift (10564); Eva, by Prince Ernest (10644); Pre- 
serve, by Orphan Boy (11878); Duchess, by Captain Balco, 1316; 
Heroine, by Capt. Balco, 1316; April Morn, by Capt. Balco, 1316. 

These animals were of excellent quality, and the importations 
since 1854, as those of that year, were chiefly from the herd of 
Mr. Douglass. No public sale was made of these cattle — most of 
them being adopted into the extensive herd of the Shakers, and there 
bred. 

In the year 1854 an association was formed in Clinton county, Ohio. 
Their agents, Mr. H. H. Hankins and another, proceeded to England 
to make a selection and bring out the cattle. The stock, consisting 
of 10 bulls and 18 cows and heifers, safely arrived, and were sold 
by public auction at Wilmington, Clinton county, on the 9th August, 
as follows : 

BULLS. 















NAME. 


GUIN. 


PURCHASERS. 


RESIDENCE. 




DOLLS 


Warrior, 1076, 


120 


B. Hinkson, H. H. Han- 












kins and others, 


Clinton county, 


O. 


$1200 


Whittington 2d, 2385, 


80 


Solomon Brock, 


Fayette county, 


O. 


900 


The Marquis, 1031, 


40 


William Bentley, 


Clinton county, 


O. 


625 


Wellington, 1087, 


180 


J. G. Coulter, H.H. Han- 












kins and others, 


Clinton county, 


0. 


3700 


Alfred, 205, 


80 


D. S. King, 


Clinton county, 


0. 


900 


Duke of Cornwall, by Albert (8816) 


60 


David Quinn, 


Clinton county, 


0. 


700 


Billy Harrison, 263, 

Moonraker, 3175 (bought with his 


125 


Jesse Starbuck, 


Clinton county, 


0. 


I5OO 












dam Sunbeam), 




Thomas Connor, 


Fayette county, 


0. 


400 


Lord Raine 2d, 665 (calved on pas- 












sage), 




Daniel Earley, 


Clinton county, 


0. 


IQ S 


Young Sir Robert, 1161 (calved on 












passage). 




Thomas McMillen, 


Clinton county 


0. 


250 



.NAME. 


GUIN. 


PURCHASERS. 


RESIDENCE. 


DOLLS 


Duchess, by Norfolk (9442), 


155 


M. B. Wright and William 










Palmer, 


Fayette county, 0. 


$1675 


Emma, by Promoter (10658), 
Hope, by Duke of York (6947), 


ICO 


Thomas Kirk, 


Fayette county, O. 


750 


SO 


William Palmer, 


Fayette county, 0. 


1000 


Miss Shaftoe, by Captain Shaftoe 










(6833), 
Familiar, by Fitz Leonard (7010), 


IOO 


Jesse Starbuck, 


Clinton county, O. 


650 


60 


Jesse Pancake, 


Ross county, 0. 


500 


Sunbeam, by Twilight (9758J, and 










calf Moonraker, 


80 


J. G. Coulter (without calf), 


Clinton county, 0. 


450 


Young Emma, by Sailor (9592), 


60 


H. H. Hankins and G. C. 










Palmer. 


Clinton county, O. 


45° 


Miss Walton 2d, by Chilton (10054). 


25 


John Hadley, 


Clinton county, O. 


3 2 S 


Princess, by Lord Newton ( ), 


40 


Hadley and Hawkins, 


Clinton county, O. 


1060 


Moonbeam, by Oxygen (9464), 


40 


Henry Kirk, 


Fayette county, 0. 


500 


Lady Jane, by Whittington (12299), 
Lady Whittington, by Whittington 


50 


David Watson, 


Madison county, 0. 


500 










(12209), 
Strawberry, by Wiseman (12317), 


5° 


VV illiam Reed, 


Clinton county, 0. 


300 


5° 


James Fullington, 


Union county, 0. 


075 


Louisa, by Crusader (ioo88),bought 










with dam. Miss Shaftoe, 




James R. Mills, 


Clinton county, 0. 


300 


Jessamine, by Y. Chilton (11278), 
ii ^pedigree not obtained), 


25 


J. O'B. Renick, 
D. Persinger, 


Franklin county, O. 


475 


35 


Fayette county, 0. 


1000 


Queen (calf of Victoria), by The 










Marquis, 1031, 




H. S. Pavy, 


Fayette county, O. 


425 



206 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

In the same year — 1854 — an association was formed in Clark 
county, Ohio, and an importation made under the agency of the 
late Dr. Arthur Watts, of Chillicothe, and Mr. Alexander Waddle, of 

South Charleston, who proceeded to England and bought 9 bulls and 
20 cows and heifers. A public sale was made of the stock on the 
6th day of September of that year, which we transcribe from their 
catalogue : 

Bulls. 

Buckingham 2d, 297, sold to Wm. D. Pierce, Clark county, Ohio, $1,000 

The Duke, 1029, sold to W. C. Davis, Montgomery county, 625 

New Year's Day, 746, sold to C. M. Clark & Co., Clark county, O., 3,500 

Czar, 395, sold to A. J. Paige, Clark county, O., 1,900 

Medalist, 697, sold to Arthur Watts, Chillicothe, O., 2,100 

Lord Stanwick, 668, sold to Alex. Waddle, Clark county, O., 500 

Rodolph, 923, sold to W. C. Davis, Montgomery county, O., 200 

Lord of the Isles, 3090, sold to Alex. Waddle, Clark county, O.,. . 575 

Shylock, 965, sold to John Hadley, Clinton county, O., 300 

Cows. 
Aylesby Lady, by Baron Warlaby (7813), sold to A. J. Paige, Clark 

county, O., i>425 

Roman 13th, by Will Honeycomb (5666), sold to Jacob Pierce, 

Clark county, O., *,300 

Zealous, by St. Albans (7462), sold to Alex. Waddle, Clark Co., O., 1,000 

Dahlia, by Upstart (7960), sold to A. J. Paige, Clark county, O.,. . 1,100 

Nectar, by North Star (9447), sold to James Davis 600 

Lavender, by St. Albans (7462), sold to Arthur Watts, Chillicothe, O., 500 
Lancaster 17th, by Prince Royal (7371), sold to William D. Pierce, 

Clark county, O., 900 

Roan Lady, by St. Albans (7462), sold to William D. Pierce, Clark 

county, O., 1,000 

Lancaster 19th, by St. Albans (7462), sold to L. B. Sprague, Clark 

county, O., 

Venus, by Lord Byron (11710), sold to Wm. D. Pierce, Clark Co., O., 1,075 

Zenobia, by Crusade (7938), sold to Alex. Waddle, Clark Co., O.,. . 625 

Nell 2d, by Monarch ( ), sold to A. Toland, 

Butterfly 13th, by Monarch ( ), sold to H. Stick ney, 290 

Blushing Beauty, by Crown Prince (10087), sold to Alex. Waddle, 

Clark county, O., 425 

Rose of Panton, by Leonidas (10414), sold to A. Toland, 375 

Zephyr, by Beaufort (9943), sold to L. B. Sprague, Clark Co., O., 400 
Easter Day, by Lord Marquis (10459), sold to c - M - Clark, Clark 

county, O., 1,125 

Blush 17th, by Baron Warlaby (7813), sold to G. Green, Blooming- 
ton, 111. 470 

Rosy, by Royal Buck (10750), sold to G. Green, Bloomington, 111., 400 

Silk, by Hopewell, sold to Charles Phellis, Madison county, O.,. . . 205 



LIVINGSTON CO., N. Y., IMPORTATIONS. 207 

Much valuable stock has since sprung from these animals. 
In 1S54 the Kentucky Importing Company imported from England 
and placed on the farm of Mr. Charles W. Innes, near Lexington, 
and in October of that year sold the following Short-horns : 

Bulls. 

Emigrant, 472, sold to Silas Corbin, Bourbon county, Ky., $ 205 

Sirius, 4371 (13737), sold to R. A. Alexander, Woodford county, Ky., 3,500 
Macgregor, 675, sold to J. Hill, Bourbon county, and C. W. Innes, 

Fayette county, Ky., 600 

Earl De Grey, 2801, sold to W. C. Goodloe 250 

Oakum, 763, sold to Bagg, Finley and Rosele, Scott county, Ky.,. . 

Capt. Stouffer, 311, sold to J. McMeekin, Scott county, Ky 167 

Cows. 

Irene, by Sheldon (S557), sold to J. Hill, Bourbon county, Ky.,. . . . 520 

Amazon, by Newmarket (10563), sold to H. Clay, Bourbon Co., Ky., 225 
Bessy Howard, by Fitz Walter (10232), sold to R. A. Alexander, 

Woodford county, Ky., 650 

Lizzy, by Marquis of Carrabas (117S9), sold to R. A. Alexander, 

Woodford county, Ky., 600 

Pine Apple, by Lord Morpeth (13205), sold to W. F. Jones, 510 

Ruby, by Gen. Fairfax (11519), sold to R. A. Gano, Bourbon Co., 215 

Commerce, by Concord (11302), sold to J. McMeekin, Scott Co., Ky., 415 

Peeress, by Treasurer (13S99), sold to Gaines, 275 

Winny, by Crusade (7938), sold to Albert Allen, Fayette Co., Ky., 300 

Mary, by Sweet William (9701), sold to W. Simms 240 

Welcome, by Beaufort (9943), sold to J. McMeekin, Scott Co., Ky., 505 

Shepherdess, by Bridegroom (11203), sold to R. Innes, Fayette Co., 505 

Matilda, by Villiers (13959), sold to S. Corbin, Bourbon Co., Ky., 205 

Downhorn, by Liberator (7140), sold to J. McClelland, 405 

In the same year, a number of wealthy farmers and cattle breeders 
of the Genesee valley, N. Y., known as "The Livingston County 
Stock Association," through their agents, Messrs. David Brooks and 
S. L. Fuller, purchased in England 24 well-selected Short-horns. 
They were shipped for America, but during a stormy passage 12 of 
them were lost, and only one-half the original number arrived at 
their destination. Among the surviving animals were the bulls Blet- 
soe, 2548, purchased by Sackett, Barber & Co., and Usurper, 3522, 
owned by the late Judge Carroll, of Groveland. Also the cows 
Australia, by Lord Foppington (10437) ; Hopeless, by Horatio (10335); 
Lady Ellington, by Broughton Hero (6S11); and Music, by Balco 
(99 1 S). These four cows became the property of the late General 
James S. Wadsworth, of Geneseo. Also Phoenix 2d, by Horatio 
(10335), which was owned by J. H. Bennett, of Avon. 



208 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

Shortly after this importation came out to the same parties the bull 
Governor, 2922, owned by Messrs. Brooks, Bennett & Co., and two 
cows, the names of which are not now recollected. Like some other 
importers, these parties were negligent in keeping records of the 
names of their animals, or pedigrees. We have been unable to 
obtain further particulars of these importations. Many of their pro- 
duce are recorded in the American Herd Book. 

In the year 1856, an importation of Short-horns was made by the 
" Mason and Bracken Counties Importing Company " into Kentucky, 
of 4 bulls and 12 cows. They were kept and bred by the importers, 
and sold near Germantown, Ky., on the 1st October, 1859; the herd 
then consisted of the original importations and their increase, 12 bulls 
and 17 cows and heifers. The imported ones were: 

Bulls. — Vatican (12260) (bred by Earl Ducie), by Usurer (9763) 
Blandimar (bred by Sir Charles Knightly), by Earl of Dublin (161 78) 
Emperor Napoleon (bred by Mr. Fawkes), by Bridegroom (11203) 
and Grisset (bred by Mr. Christy), by Duke of Beauford (11377). 

Cows. — Julia, by Young Grant ; Duenna, by Duke of Cambridge 
(12742); Light of the Harem, by Nabob (11834) ; Granny Light, by 
Bridegroom (11203); Alice, by Harbinger (10297); Diana, by Bren- 
nus (8902); Lady Laura, by Grand Duke (12973); High Bank, by 
Horatio (10335); Hasty, by Horatio (10335); Violet, by Duke of 
Beauford (11377); Jennie Deans, by Duke of Beauford (11377); 
Lady Bariscourt, by Jasper (11069). 

Several of these animals were selected from choice herds in Eng- 
land and Ireland, and they were, no doubt, valuable cattle. The 
catalogue from which the above list is taken gives no names of the 
purchasers, nor prices at which the cattle or their produce were sold. 
We have made inquiries at the proper quarter for particulars, but 
have not been able to obtain them. Few of their descendants have 
found their way into the Herd Books, and we infer that the calamitous 
financial times during which the sale was made, swallowed many of 
them in the common ruin, or run them into the shambles of the 
butcher. 

In the year 1857, a number of substantial farmers and stock breed- 
ers in the central part of Illinois came together and formed " The 
Illinois Importing Association." The late Capt. James N. Brown, 
who, in 1833, had removed from Kentucky into Sangamon county, 
111., brought with him the first established herd of Short-horns known 
in the State of his adoption. He had bred them assiduously and 
successfully but recognizing the advantage of an infusion of more 



ILLINOIS IMPORTING ASSOCIATION. 209 

popular blood, he induced several others to join him in the enterprise 
of obtaining it. Himself, together with Messrs. H. C. Johns and 
Henry Jacoby went abroad as agents, and purchased 10 bulls and 21 
cows and heifers, well selected from standard herds in England, Ire- 
land and Scotland. Of these, three bulls and one heifer died on their 
passage. The remainder, twenty-seven in number, safely arrived in 
Illinois. They were sold by auction at Springfield, August 27, 1857, 
as follows : 

Bulls. 

Defender, 2704 (126S7), sold to A. G. Carle, Champaign Co., 111.,. . $2,500 

King Alfred, 3053, sold to Brown, Jacoby & Co., Sangamon Co.,. . 1,300 

Admiral, 2473, sold to S. Dunlap & Co., Sangamon county 2,500 

Master Lownds, 3140X, sold to J. H. Spears, Menard county, 725 

Argus, 2502, sold to George Barnet, Will county, 2,058 

Doubloon, 3833^, sold to Wash. lies, Sangamon county, 1,075 

Goldfinder, 2920X, sold to J. C. Bone, Sangamon county 725 

Cows. 

Bella, by California (10017), sold to J. Ogle, St. Clair county, $750 

Caroline, by Arrow (9906), sold to J. M. Hill, Morgan county, .... 500 
Stella, by Snowstorm (12119), sold to Mr. Bohnman, St. Clair Co., 925 
Lady Harriet, by Procurator (10657), sold to J. H. Jacoby, Sanga- 
mon county 1,300 

Cassandra 2d, by Master Charlie (133 12), sold to H. Ormsby, San- 
gamon county, 675 

Western Lady, by Grand Turk, 2935 (12969), sold to J. N. Brown, 

Sangamon county 1,325 

Empress Eugenie, by Bridegroom (11203), sold to J. Ogle, St. Clair 

county, 675 

Pomegranate, by Master Charlie (13312), sold to T. Simpkins, Pike 

county 975 

Lily, by Snowstorm (12119), sold to George Barnet, Will Co., 550 

Constance, by Snowstorm (121 19), sold to George Barnett, Will Co., 700 
Empress, by Tortworth Duke (13S92), sold to Henry Jacoby, San- 
gamon county, i,7 2 5 

Rachel 2d, by Duke of Bolton (1273S), sold to J. N. Brown, San- 
gamon county, 3,° 2 5 

Minx, by Lord Spencer (132 51), sold to J. G. Loose, Sangamon Co., 800 

Adelaide, by Matadore (11S00), sold to R. Morrison, Morgan Co., 825 

Emerald, by Hopewell (10332), sold to J. C. Bone, Sangamon Co., 2,125 

Perfection, by The Baron (13833), sold to E. B. Holt, Scott Co.,. . 900 

Coquette, by Economist (11425), sold to George Barnet, Will Co., 550 
Fama, by 2d Grand Duke, 21S1 (12961), sold to J. H. Spears & Co., 

Menard county, 1,050 

Coronation, by Cheltenham (125SS), sold to J. A. Pickrell, Madison 

county, 500 

Violet, by Young Scotland (13681), sold to J. H. Judy, Menard Co., 700 

13 



2IO HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

From these animals, in most instances, have since been bred a 
numerous progeny. 

The result of this sale, confined (as may be supposed from the 
extent of the prices obtained) chiefly to those who had contributed 
to the funds of the association, testified that the Short-horn spirit 
was yet buoyant, and in the course of successful continuance. 

Just after the close of this transaction came down upon the country 
the great commercial revulsion of 1857, long memorable in the finan- 
cial annals of our history. This crisis was severe upon the agricul- 
tural interests, as well as the commercial and manufacturing industries 
of the country, and the values of Short-horn cattle, in common with 
other commodities, suffered. For a time their sales were dull, and 
prices, as in 1842, and years afterwards, with some few and noted 
exceptions, became almost nominal. 

In 1 86 1 followed our unfortunate civil war, revolutionizing not 
only the political and financial policy of many States in our hitherto 
united country, but temporarily depressing values of all industrial 
products. As the war grew wilder and more desperate, although all 
commodities of necessary consumption rose rapidly under an infla- 
ted currency, and the restricted labor of the farms consequent on 
the call of soldiers to the field, an interregnum in the product and 
sales of Short-horns was widely and disastrously felt among their 
breeders. In the Northern States they were undisturbed by invading 
armies ; but prudent and considerate men, usually ready for success- 
ful enterprises, as purchasers, with the exception of a few spirited 
breeders of the more fashionable strains of blood, let the Short-horns, 
as well as other improved breeding animals, severely alone. The 
Kentuckians, in whose hitherto favored State the Short-horns, early 
established, had long flourished in their fullness of pride and excel- 
lence, as it became ravaged by conflicting troops on either side, 
hid their cattle away from their spoilers, or drove them into adjoining 
Northern States, where they could remain secure from danger. All 
was uncertainty, so far as related to the values of their cherished 
herds ; and thus for four years of civil war, matters remained in 
doubtful anticipation. 

Yet the consumption and disorganization of the war had created 
a fearful void in meat-producing animals throughout the country, 
North and South alike, and on the return of peace and a more settled 
order of things, the Short-horn breeders deliberately cast about and 
ascertained that their hitherto cherished herds had suffered but little 
diminution of numbers beyond what their productive increase had 



SHORT-HORN IMPORTATIONS. 211 

made good, and that previous values had now returned with a new 
demand and widely extended market for their animals. So stood the 
Short-horn animals of our country at the close of the year 1865. 

After the civil war was ended a few importations were again made 
by some of our enterprising breeders. Mr. James O. Sheldon, of 
Geneva, N. Y., previously mentioned, in the year 1859, imported the 
bull Grand Duke of Oxford, 39S8 (16184), and the cow Miss Butter- 
fly, by Master Butterfly (14918), both of which he bred in his herd. 
He had previously become possessed of several animals from the fine 
herd of Mr. Thorne, and to them had added extensive purchases 
from the herd of Mr. Alexander, of Kentucky, and soon afterwards 
of the entire herd of Mr. Thorne. In the year 1868 or '69, he im- 
ported eight heifers, selected from some of the best herds in England. 
The pedigrees are recorded in the later volumes of the American 
Herd Book, and several of them afterwards passed, at the final sale 
of his herd, into the hands of Messrs. Walcott and Campbell, New 
York Mills, Oneida county, N. Y. 

Messrs. Walcott and Campbell, who had a few years previous be- 
come possessed of many good animals, and in 1870 purchased the 
large herd of Mr. Sheldon, some 70 or 80 in number, about the same 
time, or previously, made several valuable importations — bulls and 
cows — from Mr. Thomas C. Booth, and other noted English breeders. 
They were purchased without regard to prices, so that their qual- 
ities were of a high order. One of the cows, Bride of the Vale, was 
bred by and purchased of Mr. T. C. Booth, at the price of 1,000 
guineas, but on the express condition that she was to be taken to 
America, as Mr. Booth would not part with a female of her tribe to 
be retained in England. Their importations of several choice selec- 
tions were continued until into the year 187 1, and are recorded 
in Vols. 10 and n, American Herd Book. 

In 187 1, Mr. Lewis Hampton, and some associates, of Clark county, 
Ky., went to England and selected several valuable cows and heifers 
from different breeders there, and brought them out as fresh crosses to 
their already valuable herds. They were sold at auction a few weeks 
after their arrival in Kentucky, mostly among the associates, and their 
pedigrees are recorded in Vol. n, American Herd Book. 

In the same year Mr. Edwin G. Bedford, of Bourbon county, Ky., 
also sent out and purchased (through Mr. John Thornton, of Lon- 
don) several valuable cows and heifers on his own individual account, 
which he adopted into his long established home-bred herd. Their 
pedigrees may be found in Vol. n, American Herd Book. 



212 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

During the same year, Capt. Pratt, of the ship Hudson, trading 
between New York and London, brought out in June four fine heifers. 
In November, afterwards, he again brought out two bulls and six 
heifers, from the herd of Mr. Torr, and Messrs. Dudding, of Lincoln- 
shire, all superior animals, which were placed on the farm of Mr. L. F. 
Allen, near Buffalo, N. Y., and all — together with two bull calves, 
dropped since their arrival from England — afterwards sold, by Messrs. 
A. B. Allen & Co., to Mr. J. H. Pickrell, Harristown, 111. Their pedi- 
grees are recorded in Vol. n, American Herd Book. 

There may have been a few other Short-horns imported into the 
United States in the year 187 1, but if so we have no immediate 
account of them. 

Importations of Short-horns into Canada. 

We would gladly narrate a full and particular history of the Can- 
ada Short-horns, their introduction and progress, as has been done 
with those of the United States, had we the material at hand. But 
with all our efforts to obtain them our notes are scant. We give such 
memoranda as we have. 

In the year 1833, Mr. Rowland Wingfield, living in the vicinity of 
Toronto, Canada West (now Ontario), imported from England the 
bulls Reformer, 898, and Young Farmer, 62, also cows Favorite, by 
Warden (1563); Favorite 2d, by Henwood (2114); Pedigree, by 
Mynheer (2345); Countess, by Warwick (2815); and Lily, by War- 
den (1563). Their produce are now in several herds. 

The succeeding year The Home District Agricultural Society im- 
ported four thorough-bred bulls — names not ascertained — and spread 
them in various directions. They were chiefly bred to common cows, 
as we find no pure Short-horn produce resulting from them. 

About the year, 1836, the late Mr. Adam Ferguson imported into 
the vicinity of Hamilton, C. W., the bull Agricola (1614) — afterwards 
called Sir Walter by Mr. Ferguson — and cows Cherry, by Dunstan 
Castle; and Beauty, by Snowball (2674). They were successfully 
bred by Mr. Ferguson, and their produce are now found in many 
herds. 

In or about the same year of Mr. Ferguson's importation, Messrs. 
George and John Simpson imported from Yorkshire, England, and 
brought with them to New Market, C. W., from the herd of Mr. 
Parrington, Stockton-on-Tees, several good Short-horns, which they 
bred for some years. The results of their breeding we have not been 
able to accurately ascertain. 



CANADIAN IMPORTATIONS. 213 

During several years afterwards various other importations were 
made, both into Lower and Upper Canada, of which we have been 
unable to gather either dates of the importations, or names of ani- 
mals brought out. Among these William and George Miller, of 
Markham, about the year 1850, and in several years since, imported 
a number of valuable animals — chiefly from Scotland — but as we 
have had no catalogue, nor full records of their pedigrees, no partic- 
ular accounts can be given of them. 

In the year 1855, Mr. Frederick Wra, Stone, of Guelph, began a 
series of importations from several noted English herds, which he 
has continued through intervening years down to nearly the present 
time. 

In 1S59 or '60, Mr. N. J. McGillivray, of Williamstown, Glengarry 
county, C. W., imported a bull and four cows from the herds of Mr. 
Cruikshank, of Sittyton, and others, in Scotland. 

Mr. David Christie, of Brantford, commenced his importations in 
the year 1864, of several fine Short-horns, chiefly from the herd of 
Mr. Douglass, of Athelstaneford, Scotland, which he placed with a 
thorough-bred herd established by him some years earlier. He has 
since added to his importations, all, or nearly all of which have been 
recorded in the later volumes of the American Herd Book. 

Other parties, comprising the names of Mr. Armstrong, of Mark- 
ham; Mr. Mairs, of Vespra; Messrs. Wade, of Cobourg; Mr. Mul- 
lock, of Waterdown ; Mr. Ashton, of Gait ; Mr. Ashworth, of Ottawa ; 
Mr. Place, of Beachville; Mr. Petty, of Huron; Dr. Phillips, of 
Prescott ; Mr. John Thomson, of Whitney ; Mr. Roddick, of Cobourg, 
The Quebec Agricultural Society, and probably some others in dif- 
ferent localities have made importations. Added to the above names 
occur John Miller, of Brougham; William Miller, Jr., of Pickering; 
Simon Beattie, of Markham, and Richard Gibson, who have made 
valuable importations within a few years past. 

But the most striking series of importations, either in number or 
value, ever made into Canada, were by Mr. Mark H. Cochrane, an 
extensive manufacturer and merchant, of Montreal, and placed on 
his large farm of Hillhurst, at Compton, Province of Quebec, begin- 
ning in 1867, and continued until and into the early part of the 
present year, 1872. 

In 1867 he shipped from Glasgow, Scotland, his first importation 
of two animals : the cow Rosedale, by Velasco (15443), and the bull 
Baron Booth of Lancaster, 7535, American Herd Book. 



214 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

In August, 1 863, he shipped from Liverpool, Eng., seven cows and 
heifers, and one bull, Robert Napier, 8975, A. H. B. 

In June, 1869, he shipped from Glasgow four cows and heifers. 

In August following he shipped from Glasgow five cows and heifers, 
and two bulls. 

On August 2d, 1870, he shipped from Liverpool thirty-five cows and 
heifers, and four bulls; on August 7th, following, he shipped also 
from Liverpool five cows and two bulls. 

In the months of August and October, 1870, he also shipped from 
Liverpool seven cows and heifers, and three bulls. 

In July, 187 1, he shipped from Liverpool twenty cows and heifers, 
and four bulls. 

In March, 1872, he also had shipped from Liverpool three cows 
and heifers, making in all the shipments of the last six years eighty- 
seven well-bred Short-horns. 

Of the whole number a few died, or were killed by accident on 
their passages ; the remainder all arrived safely onto Mr. Cochrane's 
farm at Compton. The animals were selected by Mr. Cochrane him- 
self, for which he made several voyages across the Atlantic, or with 
the assistance of Mr. Simon Beattie, of Canada, and Mr. John Thorn- 
ton, the noted stock auctioneer, of London. No importation of 
Short-horns ever made by an American have equaled in cost, the 
stock brought out by Mr. Cochrane. Among them were two Bates 
Duchess heifers, at the price cost of 2,500 guineas, or upwards of 
$6,250 each. A considerable number of them were either pure 
Booth, or containing several crosses of the blood of the Booth tribes ; 
several others were deep in various tribes of Bates blood. The ped- 
igrees of all, or nearly all these animals, and their produce since their 
importation have been recorded in the later volumes of the American 
Herd Book, where they can be readily found. Many of them were 
sold soon after their arrival, and brought into the United States ; 
others have been sold, and still remain in Canada, in the hands of 
different owners, while a still larger number remain in the home herd 
of Mr. Cochrane. 

Thus concludes our history of the Short-horns, both in England, 
until a modern period, and in America down to the present time ; but 
as some other important matters connected with them are worthy of 
notice, we shall occupy a few further pages in their consideration. 



THE SHORT-HORNS AS MILKERS. 215 

The Short-horns as Milkers. 

Our history has fully shown that from the earliest period the Short- 
horn cows, as a rule, were large milkers, and when cultivated with a 
view to dairy purposes no animals of any breed excelled, and few if 
any equaled them. When milk has been the main object in their 
keeping, no cows have made larger yields according to the consump- 
tion of food than they. 

Even in our own time we have frequent records of cows, in the 
height of the grass season, giving 24 to 36, and even 40 quarts per 
day. Numerous notes of the kind may be found attached to the 
pedigrees of cows in the several volumes of the American Herd Book, 
and the yields of butter have been correspondingly large. It is not 
necessary to quote these items, as every one acquainted with the race 
will call to mind more or less of them. It is true, as a rule, that the 
cow which is a profuse milker must be comparatively lean in flesh, 
which detracts from her appearance when by the side of one other- 
wise equally good, or perhaps inferior in quality, which gives little 
milk, and runs more to flesh. Yet the large milker, when dried off 
and fed, may present as fine a form and development as another 
which never gave more milk than would nurse a calf for five or six 
months after birth, even in cases where the feeding is equal in quality. 
It may be added that the heavy milker requires more feed during her 
dairy season than the other, while the latter carries a heavy carcass 
of flesh ; but the additional food is more than compensated in the 
milk or butter she yields. 

In the Avide beef-producing districts of our country where milk is of 
little object beyond that of nursing a calf to the proper age of wean- 
ing, the milking faculty of the Short-horn cow has been partially 
bred out, but it is capable of being restored in a few generations by 
the application of bulls descended from herds where the dairy quality 
has been preserved. Indeed we have seen wonderful milkers occa- 
sionally strike out in herds where the cows were only nominal in their 
yields, abundantly testifying that the dairy quality is inherent in their 
organization. As thorough-bred cows, from their much higher value 
for breeding purposes than for dairy use, are likely for many years to 
be devoted solely to breeding, it is not at all probable, unless for the 
production of bulls to beget grade dairy cows, that they will be reared 
with mucli regard to their lacteal qualities, unless in certain sections 
of the country where milk, as a matter of necessity, is the chief 
object. In this view, we have no suggestions to make other than that 



2l6 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

each party choosing the Short-horns for his stock, should exercise 
his own judgment in their selection, whether they be greater or lesser 
milk producers. It is sufficient to say that the Short-horns may be 
the maximum or the minimum of milkers, as the parties needing 
them may determine. 

As a Flesh-producing Animal. 

Nothing of the bovine race ever has, or probably ever can, equal 
the Short-horns in early maturity, rapid accumulation of flesh, full- 
ness and ripeness of points, according to the amount of food they 
consume, and assimilating that food to its most profitable use. A 
century of experience in Britain and half a century of experience in 
America, with a rapidly growing confidence in their flesh-taking 
capacity have placed the Short-horns in the foremost rank of all 
neat cattle. It must be a newly-discovered animal that will supercede 
the Short-horn wherever abundant forage and rich pasturage are 
found. With cows of the common, or of inferior breeds, on be- 
coming aged, and their profitable use for the dairy passed, they are, 
comparatively, almost useless for feeding into a profitable carcass of 
flesh from the disproportionate amount of forage they consume and 
the light yields of meat they make. It is not so with the Short-horn. 
Her broad, well-proportioned anatomy, with sufficient food, takes 
flesh rapidly, and within a period that would enable the inferior one 
to reach only a preparatory, or thriving condition, the Short-horn will 
be fed off and fit for the shambles. Thus, when the native or com- 
mon cow is done with for the dairy, and becomes comparatively 
worthless, the other yields a profitable carcass of beef, hide and tal- 
low, as if in her prime of age and usefulness. 



Vitality, Longevity, and Fertility. 

No cattle, of whatever race or breed, have exhibited more of the 
above named qualities than the Short-horns. We might mention 
scores of bulls by name which have proved useful to extreme ages, 
both in England and America. 

Among the English bulls, one of the earliest and most celebrated 
of the Herd Book animals, Hubback (319), begat calves after he was 
ten years old. Favorite (252) begat calves at thirteen years. He 
was ten years old when he sired the celebrated Comet (155). Marske 
(418) was useful thirteen years, and died at the age of fifteen. And 



VITALITY, LONGEVITY, AND FERTILITY. 21 7 

so with many other English bulls, who were the sires of as good 
stock in their later as in their earlier years. Among the American 
bulls Washington (1566), bred by Mr. Champion, in England, im- 
ported and owned by Gen. Van Rensselaer, at Albany, N. Y., died 
at nineteen years old, and held his virility to within a year of his 
death. Oliver (2387), bred by Col. Powel, of Philadelphia, Pa., and 
owned in Kentucky, got calves at seventeen years old. Old Splendor, 
767, A. H. B., bred by Mr. Weddle, in Western New York, got calves 
after sixteen, and died when seventeen years old. Renick, 903, 
A. H. B., bred by James Renick, in Kentucky, got calves at fourteen 
years old, and died soon after, while yet apparently vigorous. Baron 
of Oxford, 2525, A. H. B., bred by Mr. Thorne, of Thorndale, N. Y., 
died at fifteen years from the effects of an accident by a fall on slip- 
pery ice when in the act of serving a cow — useful to the last. 

Among the aged cows may be named " Duchess, by Daisy bull," 
bred by Charles Colling, in England, who, after many years of suc- 
cessful breeding, made an excellent carcass of beef at seventeen 
years. Many other cows of English breeding attained the age of 
fifteen to upwards of twenty years. Among the American cows, one 
belonging to Mr. John G. Dun, of London, Ohio, the name not 
recollected, had a calf, at seventeen years. Imported Young Mary, 
by Jupiter (2170), owned in Kentucky, bred fourteen heifer calves — 
and one bull — and died at twenty-one years. This is the most remark- 
able instance of heifer breeding within our knowledge, and more 
Herd Book pedigrees run into Young Mary than any other half 
dozen cows of record. Mr. Dun's cow Florida, by Comet, 356 
(1854), brought her last calf at eighteen years, and nursed and reared 
it. The Kentucky cow, Catherine Turley, by Goldfinder (2066), 
lived until eighteen years old; she was then fed off for the butcher, 
and when slaughtered was found to be in calf. A well-bred cow of 
the Union Village Shakers, Warren county, Ohio, brought a living 
heifer calf after she was twenty-one years old. But it is useless to 
multiply instances of great longevity. We have related these from 
many others which might be named, had we opportunity to look them 
up and record them. 

All the Short-horns need is a sufficiency of proper food — not forc- 
ing — and sensible treatment in the way of shelter and care to prove 
them the equals, if not superiors, in fertility and longevity, of any 
others of the bovine race. 



218 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 



The Colors of Short-horn Noses. 

In the earlier history of them we find that cloudy, smoky, or even 
black noses in the Short-horns were frequent, and some of the more 
distinguished breeders had more or less of them among their best ani- 
mals. But so far as we can discover they were never fashionable ; 
on the other hand they were objectionable, as a matter of taste, at 
least. Yet withal, dark noses were inherent in the race, cropping out, 
now and then, in almost every herd, even to the present day, and 
only by the most careful weeding out of the dark-nosed young breed- 
ing animals as they occurred, have the orange or drab noses become 
the rule, and dark the exception. 

Some critical people have asserted that a dark nose is indicative 
of impure blood ; that it came in with the Colling cross of the Gal- 
loway cow ; others that stealthy crosses of the West Highland, or 
other outside cattle introduced it, but no proof exists of either, and 
the question may as well at once be yielded that the dark nose is 
inherent in the Short-horn race. We do not advocate a dark nose, 
either in full, or cloudy, or in streaks, or spots, yet we have seen many 
Short-horns with unimpeachable pedigrees, and descended from herds 
long distinguished for their superior quality, which had either dark or 
cloudy noses. Nor have we ever known that the color of the nose at 
all governed the otherwise essential good qualities of the animal ; 
yet so long as a good bull or cow can be found with an orange, drab, 
or brownish nut-colored nose, of equally good quality otherwise, we 
would not breed from a dark-nosed one — more from the unpopularity 
of the color than any other exceptional bad quality the creature might 
possess. 

To make our position good in the way of an occasional dark nose 
cropping out : We once had a choice Short-horn cow, with a perfect 
orange nose, which we bred to a pure Devon bull, with an equally 
good nose as the heifer, and the produce was a red roan calf with a 
jet black nose, which a well-bred Devon never has. The black nose 
of the calf in question came from the Short-horn blood, not the 
Devon. A pure Short-horn nose of any shade between a /zz//-brown, 
or deep drab, running up to a yellow, may be classed as unexception- 
able in that particular. It is so in England. A light flesh-zo\oTt& 
nose is equally objectionable as a dark one, being usually accompa- 
nied with a lighter colored skin, and sometimes a delicacy in physical 
form or constitution, (although not always so,) beyond those animals 



COLORS OF SHORT-HORNS. 2IO, 

with noses of a deeper color, either orange, drab, nut-colored, or 
cloudy. 

For grade breeding, that is, for beef or dairy purposes, (and for the 
most progressive purposes of working up toward the pure blood,) a 
grade bull should never be used, when a thorough-bred one can be 
obtained; provided the bull be otherwise good, if he have a dark 
nose it need not be objected to. No matter what the color of the 
nose, the cow will milk as well, and the steer feed as profitably as if 
that feature in them were the height of perfection. 

Bodily Colors of Short-horns. 

The legitimate colors of the race, from their earliest history, have 
been red, in its different shades, and pure white, either one prevailing 
to greater or less extent over the entire body, or spreading in various 
proportions of each in distinct patches, or the promiscuous interming- 
ling of both into either a light or red roan, as accident might govern, 
giving the animal a picturesque and agreeable appearance to the eye 
of the spectator. The lighter shades of red are termed "yellow- 
red," which, among the earlier animals, occasionally run into a pale 
dun, or drab, mingling with white, as with the deeper reds ; but 
within the last fifty years the dun or drab hues have mostly disap- 
peared and become unfashionable, the full reds of lighter or deeper 
shades having the preference. Still, the light dun or drab may occa- 
sionally crop out in a calf of perfect pedigree without prejudice to 
its blood or lineage. 

Fifty years ago a preponderance of white, and less of red, was the 
usual color, and in many distinguished animals pure white was equally 
acceptable as red, red and white, or roan, with the best breeders. In 
fact, we cannot discover that so late as twenty years ago objection, 
was made to a good animal solely on account of color, either red, in 
any of its different shades, or their intermixtures with white, or the 
pure white itself. It has been so in England from the earliest days 
down to the present time. Any shade, in fact, from the deepest to the 
lightest in the reds, to pure white, and their mixtures, are legitimate 
Short-horn colors, and any choice in preference to more or less of 
these prevailing in the animal, is simply a matter of taste with the 
breeder or owner. 

There has, of late years, however, grown up in the United States a 
fashion in colors, red being the choice, and deep red the prevailing 
choice. This fashion, we believe, has been mainly induced by the 



220 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

increasing popularity of the " Bates " blood, they having more of it 
than almost any other distinct family tribe ; for we do not recognize 
it as predominating in any other tribes belonging to the different 
English, Scotch, or Irish breeders. Thirty years ago we seldom saw 
a purely red Short-horn, and not many where the red much overrun 
the white. Red and white, and the roans, were the most common, 
and pure white was more popular than a full red. In fact, the roans 
were the most fashionable, and more preferred than any other where 
a preference for color prevailed at all. Some of the best bulls and 
cows ever imported into the country were pure white, so late as 
twenty years ago, while now either at public or private sale a white, 
or even a light roan bull, unless of distinguished blood, will sell for 
a much less price than a full red or red roan of equal quality, even 
when discriminating breeders in the more substantial qualities are 
the purchasers. 

In this partiality or prejudice — for we cannot call it any other — in 
the United States, we cannot but think it an absurd distinction so far 
as the true merits of the animal are concerned. A purely red cow 
may be bred to a purely red bull, and a white or roan calf may be 
the produce, as is sometimes seen ; or, a bull and cow of any other 
legitimate shades, white, roan, or of distinctly patched colors may be 
coupled, and grades of color common to neither parent may be pro- 
duced in the calf. In fact, color in Short-horns is not controllable, 
or but partially so, except as through a persistent course of breeding 
to certain colored bulls, on the rule that "like begets like," will the 
produce inherit the shades belonging to the parents, and then not 
uniformly. Therefore we say, other qualities being equal, one color 
is just as good as another, no better, no worse. Still, fashion may 
rule for a time among breeders, as the color of a person's dress may rule 
in the fashionable world of people, to be discarded at the next freak 
of fancy or taste, as those who invent them may dictate. 

Let us illustrate : The Collings always bred many more pure whites 
than pure reds, (seldom did they breed one of the latter,) while roans 
of different shades were their prevailing colors. So also with other 
of the leading breeders of England from time immemorial. The 
Booths bred without regard to a choice of color ; so that their cattle 
were good, color was a minor object. They seldom had a red ani- 
mal, but chiefly roans and whites. In Mr. Bates' early Duchess stock 
the red color prevailed, and it has through their close interbreeding, 
although since crossed by roan bulls, still held its own in their 
descendants. The importations into the United States from the 



COLORS OF SHORT-HORNS. 221 

earliest date to 1857, were chiefly roans, red and whites, and whites, 
the reds being little cared for, but rather objected to, until the Bates 
Duchess blood became in demand. Previous to the Bates arrivals 
reds were decidedly ////fashionable, some breeders carrying their 
prejudices against a full red so far as to declare such colors indica- 
tive of impure blood and bad breeding ! 

We incline to the opinion that not many years will transpire before 
good judges of Short-horns will look more closely to quality than 
color, convinced as we are that a fashion existing solely on prejudice 
or partiality, cannot be permanent. 



222 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 



CHAPTER XL 

Exportation of American Short-horns to England and 

Scotland. 

After the long series of purchases by American breeders from 
the British herds which have been enumerated, it is an interesting 
item to record the progress of the back tidal wave of purchases from 
our own American herds by English breeders, which have been taken 
to the land of their origin to re-unite their possibly superior qualities 
with the long-cherished blood of their ancestors, an event which has 
been regarded among the British breeders as of novel and especial 
interest. 

Fifty years ago, or more, a pungent writer of critiques in one of 
the British Reviews opened his article upon an American author with 
the sneering question : " Who reads an American book ? " But at 
the present day American books have become a welcome commodity 
in the British market, and receive an admiration and respect equal 
to those of its own most favored authors. 

Forty years afterwards, although the Americans had long been 
purchasers of English Short-horns, the question might have been as 
contemptuously asked by the English breeders : " Who buys an 
American Short-horn ? " For many years our American breeders had 
visited Great Britain, and carefully selected and purchased many 
choice animals from the most costly and fashionable herds, which 
they transferred onto their own American farms, and bred with a 
care and skill equal to any which had been bestowed upon them in 
the land of their nativity. It was afterwards discovered that much 
of the best blood of their cherished herds had crossed the Atlantic, 
and not to be regained except by going to America to re-purchase 
and import it back at much higher prices than those for which they 
had originally sold them. But the blood they must have, whatever 
might be the cost, and they wisely set about regaining it. 

In a letter to us of June 12, 187 1, Mr. Samuel Thorne, of New 
York, thus writes : "During a visit to England in the spring of 1861, 
I was eagerly sought after for ' Duke ' and ' Oxford ' bulls, and in 



EXPORTATION OF AMERICAN SHORT-HORNS. 223 

May of that year I sent over the bull ' Our American Cousin,' by 
imported Neptune, 19 17, out of imported Lalla Rookh, sold to me by 
F. W. Welch, of Ireland. A short time after I sent over the bulls 
3d Duke of Thorndale, 2789 (roan), 4th Duke of Thorndale, 2790 
(roan), 5th Duke of Thorndale, 3488 (white), Imperial Oxford, 4905 
(red) ; also the heifer 4th Lady of Oxford, which afterwards became 
celebrated as one of the most distinguished cows in England, both as 
a show animal and breeder. The bull 5th Duke of Thorndale, sick- 
ened on the voyage, and died in Queenstown harbor, Ireland, before 
reaching England. On their arrival in England they were sold at 
prices varying from 300 to 400 guineas each, in gold coin. In the 
following year, 1862, I sent out to England Lord Oxford, 3091 (roan), 
2d Lord Oxford [not recorded in A. H. B.], Bishop of Oxford [not 
recorded in A. H. B.], and Duke of Geneva, 3858 (roan). The latter 
shipment arrived in England safely, and sold for 250 to 600 guineas 
each, in gold, amounting to a considerable larger sum in our own 
currency." 

Soon afterwards Mr. Ezra Cornell, of Ithaca, N. Y., sold to go to 
England, the young bull 3d Lord of Oxford, 4958, bred by Mr. Thorne, 
of whom Mr. Cornell had sometime previously purchased him. He 
sold for $3,000 in gold, which, with the premium added swelled the 
sum to a much larger amount in our currency. 

About the same time Mr. R. A. Alexander, of Kentucky, sent out 
to England a few animals of choice blood of the Airdrie (Bates' 
Duchess) tribe, and possibly another animal or two, the names of 
which we have not been able to learn, nor the result of their sales. 

In August, 1867, Mr. John R. Page took out for Mr. J. O. Sheldon, 
of Geneva, N. Y., eight young animals, consisting of the roan bull 
3d Duke of Geneva, 5563, which sold for 550 guineas, and the heif- 
ers 7th Duchess of Geneva (white), sold at 700 guineas, together with 
4th Maid of Oxford (red), Countess of Oxford (white), 6th Maid of 
Oxford (roan), 7th Maid of Oxford (roan), 8th Maid of Oxford (roan), 
and 5th Maid of Oxford (white). For the six Oxfords he obtained 
2,050 guineas, an average of $2,293 e ac h. The entire sale amounted 
to 3,300 guineas=$i 7,325, or an average for the lot of $2,615.50 each, 
which, together with the premium on the gold received for them, not 
less than 20 to 25 per cent, above American currency at the time, 
made the handsome sum of nearly or quite $20,000 for eight animals, 
less the expense of exportation. 

In the year 1870, Mr. Sheldon also sold, to be delivered on ship- 
board in the city of New York, the red roan bull calf 8th Duke of 



224 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

Geneva, 7935, to Messrs. Howard and Downing, in England, for 800 
guineas, and to Mr. Cheney, also in England, the (red) heifers nth 
Duchess of Geneva, and (red roan) 13th Duchess of Geneva, at 1,000 
guineas each, in gold coin. They were taken on board ship and 
arrived safely at their destination. 

In April, 187 1, Mr. M. H. Cochrane, Compton, Province Quebec, 
sold to Earl of Dunmore, in Scotland, the cow nth Lady of Oxford, 
by 14th Duke of Thorndale, 8031, for 750 guineas; and to Colonel 
Kingscote, of England, the red bull Duke of Hillhurst, 9862, at eleven 
months old, for 800 guineas. Both these animals were delivered at 
Portland, Me., the freight and charges to be paid by the purchasers. 

In November following, Mr. Cochrane also sold to Earl of Dun- 
more the following heifers : Duchess of Hillhurst (white), and 2d 
Duchess of Hillhurst (roan), at about a year old, each (both got by 
8th Duke of York, 11867, out of imported Duchesses 103d and 
101st), for 2,500 guineas; also the cow 8th Maid of Oxford and her 
heifer calf, for 1,300 guineas; also two cows and their two heifer 
calves, purchased by Mr. Cochrane, in Kentucky, for which he re- 
ceived 500 guineas. This lot, like the previous one, was delivered 
at Portland, subject to the exportation charges. The whole ten ani- 
mals of these two exportations netted Mr. Cochrane the sum of 5,850 
guineas, or about $30,712 American currency. 

Late in the autumn of 187 1, Messrs. Walcott and Campbell, of New 
York Mills, Oneida county, N. Y., sold to Lord Skelmerdale, Eng- 
land, the young red bull, 1st Duke of Oneida, 9925, for 850 guineas, 
at eighteen months old; and with him also went out the red bull 5th 
Lord Oxford, 10382, fifteen months old, to another party there; also 
to Mr. Cheney the roan heifer 9th Maid of Oxford (two years old), 
by 10th Duke of Thorndale, 5610; red cow 10th Lady of Oxford 
(four years old), by 10th Duke of Thorndale, 5610; and roan heifer 
13th Lady of Oxford (nine months old), by Baron of Oxford, 2525, 
all at about the average prices of Mr. Sheldon's sale. 

The above are the last sales to go abroad of which we have a 
detailed account up to the year 1872 ; and most gratifying they must 
prove, in the acknowledgment by some of the most enterprising breed- 
ers of Great Britain to the excellence and value of American-bred 
Short-horns. 



THE EARLIER SHORT-HORNS. 225 



The Style, Figure and Quality, which should Represent a 
Perfect Short-horn. 

To demonstrate this we should, perhaps, have a portrait, model, 
or diagram of the animal we purpose to describe; but such an one 
is difficult to obtain, and could we obtain it, objection might be made 
that it represented a particular animal, of certain blood or breeding, 
whose conspicuity in a work of this character might show partiality 
in us, the imputation of which we wish to avoid. We shall, there- 
fore, speak of what should be, rather than what is in any animal with 
which we are familiar. We have occasionally seen a Short-horn 
which we considered almost, if not quite, perfect. We have recited 
the histories of some which seemed almost perfect in the eyes of 
judges of them in the days of the earlier breeders- — the Maynards, 
Wetherels, Collings, Booths, Mason, and their contemporaries, as well 
as to others now living. But they were not altogether so, as some 
deficient points in them have been detected. Nor do we think 
their standard of perfection was then so high as it is at the present 
time. We believe the standard of excellence has improved within 
the last seventy years, and that the average quality of well-bred Short- 
horns is higher now than in the years 1800 to 1830, although many 
animals of surpassing excellence, and known by name, existed in 
those days, as we have seen by portraits and descriptions of them. 

The mass of the old Short-horns, as we have seen, were faulty — 
coarse, many of them, sleazily made up, too prominent in bone, hard 
in the handling, lacking flesh in the most valuable parts of the car- 
cass, and having too much offal for their net weight. Their shoulders 
stood too far forward, were too upright and open at the tops ; their 
fore ribs were too flat, with too little flesh on their crops, those points 
being hollow, or concave, leaving neither roasts nor steaks upon them. 
That was, perhaps, their greatest fault, and the most difficult to over- 
come. There were other deficiencies which have been already enu- 
merated and need not be repeated. Yet the cows were generally 
great milkers, and great milkers even at the present day are more 
apt to fail in those points than in almost any others. The reader 
will understand that we now speak of the Short-horns of some cen- 
turies ago, before their breeders had discovered the capabilities of the 
race in the extent of improvement to which they have since attained. 

15 



226 HISTORY OF THE SHORT- HORNS. 

But good breeding has corrected most of these, and we now see 
large numbers of Short-horns existing in the peerless symmetry which 
in early days were not common to their race. 

To the point, then : What is a perfect Short-horn ? 

We propose to dissect and analyze the creature from the point of 
its nose to the brush of its tail. In this we are aware that we may 
run against both tastes and prejudices, as well as fashions ; but tastes, 
prejudices and fashions, are all more or less arbitrary, the results of 
education, and sometimes absurd when running against, practical excel- 
lence, or true merit, in almost any subject. We propose to speak of 
merit mainly, and permit the reader to interpose his own ideas of 
taste or fashion, as they may occur. 

The muzzle : This should be fine, with a wide, open nostril ; a 
large, but not coarse mouth beneath it, thin lips, light, fine under jaw, 
devoid of flesh, except a slight pendulous skin underneath. The 
color of the nose yellow, orange, or a nutty drab. (The colors of 
the nose are elsewhere discussed.) 

The head : Should be well-proportioned in length, breadth, and 
general symmetry ; rather shorter in the bull and longer in the cow, 
in proportion to the size of the animal of either sex. The cheeks 
should be lean, and destitute of much flesh, giving them a neat, airy 
appearance. The forehead broad, gracefully narrowing along the 
face towards the muzzle; the face slightly concave — not dished, 
(like an Alderny,) but a true Short-horn face of elegant and stylish 
bearing. The hair in the forehead of a bull may be either straight, 
or curly, without prejudice either way. The eye should be promi- 
nent and large, encircled by a broad orange ring, clear of hair, or 
the hair growing upon it short, and running gradually out into the 
face and cheeks at a brief distance. The expression of the eye 
should be mild and gentle, indicating kindness of disposition. A 
sullen or deep-set eye, is more or less indicative of bad temper, and 
intractable nature. The style and expression of the eye we consider 
an important feature of the animal in its qualities of perfection. 

The horn : As a rule, should be light, although a heavy one is not 
particularly objectionable, as it is of no use other than indicating the 
character of the race. The bases should stand wide on each side at 
the top of the skull, and bend gracefully forward in an outward curve, 
and may then incline downward or upward, either way without 
prejudice to the main qualities of the beast. They should be oval in 
shape at the base, and so continue some distance from the head ; of 
waxy or neutral tint, inclining, if not strictly of the waxy character, 



A PERFECT SHORT-HORN. 227 

to a creamy, rather than a white shade, and no dark tint or black 
except at the tips, and even there the less of either the better. The 
horns of some of the best animals sometimes take an upright form ; 
others a backward and downward curve, which need not be objected 
to if the creature be otherwise unobjectionable. But a perfect horn, 
in either bull or cow, should have a graceful, outward spread, inclin- 
ing gently downward or upward at the sides and front, small and fine. 

The ear : Should be upright, large, and thin, well covered inside 
and out, with long, fine hair, and flexible in movement. It is not an 
important feature, and only noticeable in adding grace and beauty to 
the general features of the head. The head of a Short-horn gives 
the animal much of its character for grace and comeliness, if not of 
general excellence, although we have known many of superlative 
quality in every other particular, with plain heads — that being the 
only objectionable point. The Booth heads are inclined to be quite 
straight in the face, from forehead to muzzle — so much so as some- 
times to give the heifers a steery appearance. This, however, is a 
matter of taste only, yet more common in the Booth stock than in 
the herds of most other breeders. 

The neck : Should be strong and well set, of a graceful oval 
shape adjoining the head, running backward on a level, in the cow, 
and with a gradually rising crest in the bull, deepening and widening 
as it approaches the bosom, where it should connect in a smooth 
expansion, so that it can hardly be seen where the neck terminates 
or the bosom begins. The neck should be free from hanging skin or 
dewlap. 

The chest : This most important feature, from which spring the 
brisket, shoulders, and fore ribs, should be deep, broad, and full, indi- 
cating robustness and good constitution. 

The brisket : Set prominently forward, nearly perpendicular in 
front, broad, and well let down, or even slightly projecting, towards 
the bottom, with a thin, pendulous skin underneath, indicating an 
elasticity of the flesh inclosed within it. 

The shoulders : Should be broad and even at the tops, working 
backward into a level with the chine in the rear, on a direct line, mod- 
erately upright, spreading outward as they descend from the top of 
the chest, smooth at the forward points, and thence sloping gracefully 
and tapering symmetrically into the fore legs above the knees. The 
knees should be round, muscular, and stand well apart ; the legs 
below fine-boned, and terminating in hoofs of proportionate size, 
waxy, brindled or dark brown in color. 



228 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

The fore ribs : Springing in a well-rounded arch from the spine, 
should be well expanded, long, and deep, giving abundant space for 
the well-sized heart and lungs to play, and develop what some may 
term the " fore flank " at the floor of the chest or sternum, into full 
breadth and levelness with the belly. 

The crops, or spaces behind the shoulders : These should be full, per- 
fected mainly by a sufficient springing outward of the fore ribs from 
the chine, with a full coating of flesh upon them. The crops in the 
older Short-horns were one of their most deficient points, but by 
skillful breeding they have been improved to such extent that they 
are now, in many animals, of remarkable excellence, and when so 
developed as to yield acceptable steaks and roasting pieces, add much 
to the selling as well as consumable values of the beast. In fact, no 
perfect Short-horn will show a depression behind the shoulders, but 
let a carpenter's straight-edge touch the entire space on a line from 
the shoulders to the after ribs adjoining them. 

The spine, or back bone, by whichever name it may be called : 
Should run on an even level line from the chine to the setting on of 
the tail, although in some of the choicest animals a slightly depressed 
notch is permitted at the connection of the spine with the tail. 

The loin : Broad, full, and level with the spine and hips — for 
there the choicest flesh usually lies, adding much to the weight and 
value of the carcass. 

The hips : Wide spread, smooth, and on a level with the spine — 
not falling off and tapering downwards to cause a contraction of the 
ribs and belly forward. Drooping hips are apt to be narrow, with a 
" cloddy buttock " in the rear, giving tough and lean meat of little 
value. 

The rumps : Long, full, broad and level, narrowing gracefully 
from the hips to the pin-bones, or points of the rumps, which latter 
should be wide apart, giving a proportional symmetry to either sex, 
and a great advantage and convenience to the cow in parturition. 

The tail : Well and strongly connected with the spine on a straight 
line, small, and tapering gradually to the brush, which should be 
clothed with a full tuft of long hair. 

The hinder ribs : These should spring roundly from the spine, 
long, deep, and well set back towards the hips, holding the belly up 
level, as near as may be with the floor of the chest, and by their 
breadth, giving abundant room for the viscera or bowels to play, and 
in the cow to spread sufficiently for the growth of the foetus, while 
breeding. 



A PERFECT SHORT-HORN. 229 

The flank : Should be full and low, on a line with the belly and 
thighs, the skin loosely developed to fill with fatty flesh when perfected 
for slaughter. 

The udder — in the cow : Should be broad, square, and set well 
forward, with fine, thin hair, wide between the teats, which should be 
placed well apart, of medium size and length, and gently tapering. 

The testicles of the bull : Should be full for his age, equal in 
size — as near as may be — and lightly haired. 

The thighs : Should drop perpendicularly from the pin-bones or 
points of the rumps, broad on the upper sides, and full throughout, 
the flesh running well down towards the hocks in the bulls. In the 
cows, from the rump-points downward the backward slope of the 
thighs may retreat forward and be thinner than in the bulls, as is the 
wont of her sex. Still, they should be muscular and strong. 

The hind legs : Straight, like those of the horse, standing well 
apart, with a strong muscular hock, tapering into a fine-boned, flat 
leg below, and ending in a well-spread, compact hoof, of color like 
the forward ones. 

The twist, or space above the junction of the thighs : Should be 
broad, full, and clothed with a soft, silky hair in either sex. In cows 
used for dairy purposes some importance has been given to the 
"escutcheon," according to Guenon's theory (the hair running both 
inversely and transversely far upward and outward on the thighs, 
indicating high milking qualities); but we consider that of minor 
consequence, as experience has not given anything more than a 
doubtful belief in its certainty of application. It relates to the lacteal 
tendency of the cow only, and needs no further discussion here. 

The hair : Should be close, long and soft, furnishing a warm win- 
ter covering. It will be short enough in the warm season, as nature 
provides for the changing temperatures. 

The touch, or handling quality : Should be elastic, mellow (not 
flabby), and springing under pressure of the fingers like a light India 
rubber ball. Good handling is one of the best points in a Short- 
horn. 

The skin : Moderately thick, strong, and loose, easily moving by 
action of the hand upon it, and showing plenty of cellular tissue 
underneath. 

The above qualities have been generally accepted by experienced 
and skillful Short-horn breeders to constitute the necessary points of 
a perfect specimen of the race. 



23O HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 



CHAPTER XII. 

Pure Short-Horns — Herd Books — Pedigrees. 

The subjects embraced in this chapter are, of necessity, more or 
less debateable ; still we shall strive to treat them with truth, and 
fairness. 

The question may very properly first be asked : What is a " thor- 
ough-bred or pure-blooded " Short-horn ? 

The simplest and most obvious answer may be : An animal which 
traces its descent through a line of ancestors, on both sides of its 
parentage, back to the earliest ages in Short-horn history or the 
fountain-head of its race, whether such ancestry be recorded in the 
Herd Books or not. To ascertain such fact to an absolute certainty, 
a close and thorough investigation of every volume (possibly) of the 
books, both English and American, now thirty in number, and con- 
taining over seventy thousand pedigrees, unless other positive testi- 
mony is at hand, must be made in order to settle the fact of 
indisputable purity of blood, and even then it cannot unquestionably 
be done, as our previous history has already shown. 

The question of purity in descent is a broad and intricate one. 
Numerous commentators and critics through the papers, pamphlets, 
magazines and journals, of both past and present days, have from 
time to time ventilated their opinions upon it, and arrived at widely 
different conclusions, each one for himself, and apparently satisfied in 
his own correctness; yet they have proved nothing beyond what the 
Herd Books — and they but imperfectly either investigated or under- 
stood — together with some traditions derived from the old breeders 
have given them. It is unfortunate that the investigations of this 
subject have, from the beginning, both in England and America, 
been too much of a partisan and in many of them of a personal 
character, as well as exhibiting a prejudice against, or partiality for 
some of the bloods and pedigrees which they discussed. 

Our history in the foregoing pages has related as definitely as could 
be ascertained, the origin of the Short-horn race ; and the Herd 
Books have recorded their individual progress down to the present 



ORIGIN OF THE ENGLISH HERD BOOK. 23 1 

time, through the pedigrees which they contain; but it may be well 
to understand the authority on which those pedigrees were based, 
and for that a history of the foundation of the English Herd Book 
should be related. 

We have seen that the Short-horns had been more or less cultivated 
and no doubt greatly improved through some past centuries in the coun- 
ties comprising the ancient Northumbria, previous to the year 1730, 
and we have some few records of animals by name, from that time 
down to the year 17 So, when, through the intelligence and enterprise 
of some of their younger breeders, they began in considerable num- 
bers to take position by partial pedigree, as well as name, in a few 
individual herds. The records of many animals were kept in the 
private notes of their breeders, in some instances ; in many more 
instances they were retained only in the memories of their breeders, 
and in the fallibility of those memories may not in all instances have 
been correct in certain facts of blood or birth. Yet, such were the 
only records, and they were not reduced to a permanent shape until 
the year 1822, when the first volume of the English Herd Book was 
published ; thus the pedigrees of the Short-horns remained either in 
private memoranda or tradition, for more than half a century after 
some of them had acquired individual names, and reputations as 
prominent and leading animals of their race. Their progress and 
increasing numbers through those years had been so rapid, and the 
chances of error in perpetuating their lineage were so many, that an 
imperative necessity compelled their breeders to place them in a 
permanent record. 

According to a concise and well-considered narrative, published 
in "The Country Gentleman" under date of July 27, 1871, over the 
signature "S.," which we consider competent authority, as was re- 
ceived by the writer more than twenty years ago, in England, from 
some of the then living parties who had been active in the proceed- 
ings, we extract as follows : 

" The English Short-horned Herd Book was originated as a pro- 
ject some years before its publication. Sir Henry Vane Tempest, a 
large and capital breeder of Short-horns, held semi-annual agricul- 
tural meetings in Wynyard Park, his residence, in Durham county, 
giving prizes for horses, cattle and sheep. These meetings, like those 
of the Durham Agricultural Society, always were attended by the lead- 
ing breeders of that county and Yorkshire. At a meeting in the autumn 
of 18 1 2, there were present, among others, Robert and Charles Col- 
ling, Mrs. Charles Colling, Mr. Bates, Col. Trotter, Messrs. John and 



232 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

George Hutchinson, Wetherell, Baker of Ellmore, Wright, Stephenson, 
Hustler, Raine, Mr. Booth and his sons John and Richard, Maj. Rudd, 
and the two Coateses, father and son. Sir Henry was a breeder 
of blood horses, and he suggested to the company, what had been 
before arranged between him and Mr. Coates, the publication of a 
record for Short-horns, like the Stud Book for horses. The view was 
at once adopted. All the gentlemen named were breeders of Short- 
horns, and at least three of them breeders of blood horses, viz. : Sir 
Henry, Col. Trotter and Mr. Stephenson. That was the start of the 
Herd Book. Sir Henry, Mr. Coates and Col. Trotter, had, prior to 
this consulted on the subject, and the movement at Sir Henry's din- 
ner of the day of his show, was in pursuance of arrangement. It 
was conceded that Mr. Coates was the most proper person to act as 
editor of the book. He was fitted for that duty by a large knowledge 
of pedigrees and great interest in cattle, as well as knowledge of 
breeders. He had also their confidence. Mr. Coates at once went 
to work. Sir Henry agreed to defray the expense — but, alas, he died 
the next year, nine months only from this arrangement, when only 
partial progress had been made. His death delayed the matter, and 
except that Mr. Coates continued to collect material, there was no 
advance made. Had Sir Henry lived, the first volume of the Herd 
Book would have been published years before it was. 

" The matter now rested until the first sale of Robert Colling's 
cattle in September, 1818. In the evening after the sale the project 
was revived among the breeders present, who were of course numer- 
ous, Col. Trotter bringing it up for consideration. As a means of 
defraying the expenses and giving a guarantee to a publisher, he pro- 
posed a subscription. A list was prepared and was largely signed 
there, and by every breeder then present. As the list was not money, 
no further progress was made for a year and a half. Through the 
zeal of Mr. Bates, who had deeply entered into the project, an 
arrangement was made to hold a meeting to consider the subject ; to 
examine and correct the manuscript pedigrees, and furnish more 
material. This meeting took place at the King's Head Hotel, Dar- 
lington. There were present at it, Robert and Charles Colling, Mrs. 
Charles Colling, Miss Wright of Cleasby, (her father was one of the 
purchasers of Comet, and she continued her father's breeding after 
his death,) Mr. Bates, Mr. Mason of Chilton, Mr. Baker of Ellmore, 
Mr. Whittaker, Mr. Wetherell and Mr. Coates. Letters had been 
addressed largely to breeders, requesting information, and replies were 
obtained giving much material. Mr. Bates had traversed all the 



ORIGIN OF THE ENGLISH HERD BOOK. 233 

Short-horn region and procured a large number of pedigrees. When 
the matter in hand was all laid before the meeting, it was clear that 
there was enough for a good sized volume. The plan of arrange- 
ment as it appears in the first volume was adopted, and it was decided 
to publish as speedily as possible. 

"The subscription, started in 1818, had in the next year (1819) 
largely increased. But a subscription was not money, and Mr. Coates 
was poor. Therefore, Robert Colling and Mr. Whittaker agreed to 
advance the funds necessary. Robert was still a breeder, for he had 
sold only a part of his cattle in 1818. But a second death came to 
stop the enterprise, and in a month from this meeting and financial 
arrangement, Mr. Robert Colling died on the 7th of March, 1820. 
Mr. Bates would have advanced the money required, but there were 
circumstances in his then personal position, not necessary to relate, 
which prevented. The death of Mr. Colling occasioned another 
delay, and for two years and more nothing was done toward publica r 
tion. In 1822, Mr. Whittaker, then a large breeder, proffered to 
advance himself alone the money necessary to print the first volume, 
to be repaid out of the subscriptions; but he made it a condition 
that the book should be printed at Otley, Yorkshire, near Greenholme, 
where he had his business and residence. Mr. Coates resided at 
Carlton, near Pontefract, thirty to forty miles from Otley, while the 
book could have been printed at Pontefract equally well and cheaper. 
The necessities of the case, in point of money, overruled the con- 
venience of Mr. Coates, and the book was put into the hands of Mr. 
Walker, printer at Otley. It appeared in the autumn of 1822. The 
subscribers numbered four hundred and fifty-five, and the subscrip- 
tions were five hundred and five, at a guinea each, or $2,580. These 
were paid on the delivery of the book, and Mr. Whittaker's advance 
refunded. Mr. Coates and Mr. Whittaker were always fast friends 
during life, and Mr. C. was always grateful for the assistance rendered 
him. And it may be said that all the breeders were kind friends to 
him as he was to them. There was always some coolness between Mr. 
Coates and Mr. Charles Colling, from the period of Mr. Colling's 
success over Mr. Coates in the Shows of the Agricultural Society of 
Durham. And this would not have been mentioned here, but that 
their relations were said to have influenced Mr. C. Colling adversely 
in giving Mr. Coates information for his Herd Book, and Mr. Coates 
so believed. There was some sale beyond the subscriptions, but the 
surplus of receipts above the expenses of publication afforded no 
remuneration for Mr. Coates's labor, time and expenses through years 



234 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

in obtaining material for the book. He was obliged to be much at 
Otley on expense, when, if the book had been printed at Pontefract, 
his home, or at Doncaster, near it, that would have been avoided. 
But Mr. Coates' great point was gained, for now not only were the 
Short-horns an established and popular breed, and had long been 
locally, and were becoming generally, but by his exertions they had a 
record, and he was proud of it. He now stood their herald, to record 
their genealogies and blazon their escutcheons and their arms." 

The number of bulls recorded in the first volume of Coates' Herd 
Book was 710, with about an equal number of cows, a very few of 
which are noted as having gone to America. The second volume 
appeared in 1829, seven years after the first, with 891 additional bull 
pedigrees, and a proportionate number of cows. We also find in 
Vol. 2, a number of new English breeders, and a few Americans, 
added to the contributors of pedigrees in the first volume. The 
third volume, issued in 1836, still seven years later, and in bulk larger 
than either of its predecessors, represented a considerable increase 
of breeders, including a number of Americans, with an addition of 
1,298 bull pedigrees, making the number up to 2,897, and a fair aggre- 
gate of cows attending them. This third volume, we understand, on 
the authority just quoted, was issued by a son of Mr. Coates, the 
elder, and original editor, who had assisted his father in the compi- 
lation of the two earlier volumes. Mr. George Coates had died 
previous to its publication. At seven years later, in 1843, came 
volume four, with an increase of 3,800 bulls, running their entire 
number up to 6,700. Volume four contained the pedigrees of bulls 
only. The next year, 1844, produced volume five, in two parts, con- 
taining cows only, increasing the whole number of cows up to, proba- 
bly, 8,000 or more. The three last books comprised about 1,900 
pages, with a considerable number of American breeders and their 
cattle pedigrees. The mass of well-bred living Short-horns then in 
England, Scotland and Ireland, together with many others long dead, 
belonging to breeders who had neglected to record their herds in the 
first three volumes, came into the fourth and fifth. Those volumes 
also contained many American pedigrees of dead as well as living 
Short-horns, fully satisfied, as both British and American owners were, 
of the necessity of keeping the lineage of their herds before the pub- 
lic, and in a permanent depository. 

These five volumes concluded the Herd Book labors of the Coateses 
— father and son. The proprietorship of the work and compilation of 
the sixth volume was thereafter transferred to Mr. Henry Strafford, 



SHORT PEDIGREES. 235 

who issued it in the year 1S46, in the same style and form, mainly, 
as had been done by the Coateses. The work has since been con- 
tinued at intervals by Mr. Strafford, down to the year 187 1, until the 
whole number amounts to nineteen volumes, containing 30,347 bulls, 
with a much larger number of cows. A considerable number of 
American pedigrees were entered in the successive volumes edited 
by Mr. Strafford, until a few years ago, when they were no longer 
admitted, except such as were necessary to give the lineage of British 
Short-horns descended from American sires or dams, or were ex- 
ported from America to England. The later volumes of the E. H. B. 
also contain the pedigrees of most of the native Short-horns which 
have since been imported from Great Britain into America. 

Short Pedigrees in the English Herd Books. 

We here mention one item connected with the Strafford Herd Book, 
particularly, which is necessary for the American breeder to under- 
stand. No female pedigree, except in a few particular instances, is 
admitted to record in its pages until she has become a breeder, and 
then only two, three, or (seldom) four of her pedigree crosses are given, 
with a further reference to the names of either herself or her dam in 
some previous volume, so that in order to obtain her full pedigree 
those volumes must be examined. The names of her "produce," 
however, are placed in tabular form, with date of birth and name of 
sire given, that the pedigrees of such produce can, with some extra 
labor, usually be ascertained. 

We have given the above particular account of the origin and 
history of the English Herd Book, as a part of the information with 
which the American breeder should be familiar; but there is still 
another history with which, in order to a thorough knowledge of the 
origin and truth of pedigrees, he should be acquainted. 

Were the Early Pedigrees in the English Herd Book all 
true Short-horns? 

The question may here be pertinently asked : " What reliance 
have we that the names, or the pedigrees recorded in the Coates Herd 
Books were correct, or that they were true Short-horns ? " To this 
we answer : Nothing, but the veracity of the breeders of the cattle 
whose names and pedigrees they furnished, and the acceptance of 
them by their contemporaries who were acquainted with their blood 
and breeding. To several of those animals we have already alluded. 



236 - HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

In many of the names and pedigrees mutual questions arose among 
the men who established the book, as to their correctness. Some 
averred that possible crosses of the Scotch Kyloe or West Highland 
blood, or that of other breeds had, some generations back, occurred 
in them. The Dutch, or Holland blood introduction, of which we 
have previously spoken, (if it had ever occurred, but which it appears 
was then mostly or altogether ignored,) was not a source of conten- 
tion. Of Charles Colling's Grandson of Bolingbroke cross from the 
Galloway cow, the whole story was then known, and what little there 
was left of its introduction acquiesced in by the main body of the 
breeders, as were the pedigrees of all others which could be traced 
into what were considered good Short-horn herds, be their date either 
ancient or modern. Yet, much party spirit existed among the Eng- 
lish breeders, (as now, both in Britain and America,) and sharp contro- 
versies took place in relation to their various pedigrees ; but all 
disputes were finally reconciled into the admission of the pedigrees 
recorded in the first, and subsequently into the succeeding volumes 
of the English Herd Book, so that with few exceptions, from that 
time to this, they have existed as authority for the lineage of their 
race. True, individual questions may arise among breeders, in trac- 
ing pedigrees to a remote source, as to the e?itire purity of their Short- 
horn descent ; still, the Herd Book record must ultimately decide the 
extent of confidence in blood to which the animal in dispute is enti- 
tled, and no individual opinion or decision can, absolutely, otherwise 
determine it. 

Another point in the English Herd Book may here be stated. 
Four crosses of pedigree bulls running back to what, in England, is 
considered a Short-horn cow, with but fifteen-sixteenths of recorded 
pedigree blood, entitles the animal having that number to a place in 
its pages. In this age of intelligence where five or six crosses at 
least in a well-bred English pedigree can easily be obtained, the 
showing of but three or four gives wide latitude for conjecture and 
guess-work. The Booths, from grandfather in 1777, to grandsons in 
1871, in England, have ever maintained that four crosses of well-bred 
Herd Book bulls running back to true Short-hor?i dams (which can 
readily be found there, as large numbers of such exist which have 
not been recorded in the Herd Books to this date) are sufficient to 
establish thorough breeding. Hardly a single animal of their herds, 
since they first obtained their original bulls from the Collings, runs 
back into a cow having an ancient Herd Book pedigree, although they 
have bred many of the best animals the race has produced, and yet 



EARLY ENGLISH HERD BOOK PEDIGREES. 237 

their pedigree cattle, both in England and America, are accepted as 
thorough-bred. We note their practice simply as matter of history, 
not from any doubt of the integrity of their blood. We have no such 
precedent in America where only the common native cows of the 
country, or those of some well-bred race other than the Short-horn 
can be resorted to. Thus, in America, having English Herd Book 
authority for example, we, as a matter of course, have been constrained 
to accept all English cattle imported from there as true Short-horns, 
on good authority that they were so. As such, they are entitled 
to record in our own Herd Books. Let cavilers say what they may, 
there can be no fairly disputing the question. As to what degree of 
confidence such pedigrees may be received by the public, it must be 
simply a matter of choice, or individual preference for them to either 
accept or refuse. The pedigree, or history of the animal, is the title 
to either acceptance or rejection, as best suits one's pleasure or judg- 
ment. Be it understood, however, that pedigree alone does not deter- 
mine the excellence, or value of the animal ; its form and other good 
qualities must confirm, to a greater or less extent ? the value of the 
pedigree; otherwise a wide misjudgment may be made in the choice. 

Another point — for we may as well canvass the whole question of 
pedigrees, so far as possible. We have seen it intimated, both in Eng- 
land and America, by some who may possibly know something about 
it, and more frequently bythose who do not, that there have been 
divers interpolations in some of the earlier, or even later English 
pedigrees, some bulls having been omitted that ought to be in, and 
others inserted which ought to be left out, and thus the pedigrees 
measurably falsified. That may, or may not be. Of our personal 
knowledge we can say nothing of the facts ; and in such doubt, we 
have no authority to decide the matter one way or the other but the 
Herd Book itself. The pedigrees are in the Herd Book, and being 
there, and long accepted by the mass of past, as well as living breed- 
ers, without the most positive evidence to the contrary of what they 
contain, "we have no right to question them. Inferences, innuendoes, 
and arguments may be advanced indefinitely, but they prove nothing. 

Still another point — treating the subject exhaustively while about 
it. Many people are prone to believe that a long pedigree extending 
sixty, seventy, or eighty years back, with fifteen or twenty Herd Book 
crosses in it, is positive evidence of purity, and therefore no ques- 
tion can be entertained of its thorough breeding. We shall readily 
see that such evidence may be of deficient character. Suppose, for 
instance, we take a daughter of Charles Colling's cow Lady, by 



238 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

Grandson of Bolingbroke, the Galloway cross so frequently mentioned. 
This daughter of Lady had one-sixteenth part of Galloway blood, 
and she being put to a bull having the same amount of that blood, 
the produce would contain the same fraction of impurity. Or, 
let the female produce be put to another bull having even a lesser 
fraction of the blood — for bulls were used with one-sixteenth, one- 
thirty-second and one-sixty-fourth part of it, and very much less, 
in a descending ratio, from that day to this — all of them having a 
taint of it. We ask how many crosses of that tainted blood will 
have to be made before it is entirely eradicated ? We shall not 
undertake to compute it, and yet to settle the fact, a month's labor 
or more may have to be exhausted in finding it out ; while half the 
number of crosses in some other animal may carry a pedigree back 
into its original parents without finding the most distant taint of any 
other than pure Short-horn blood. We mention this without preju- 
dice to the tainted pedigree, but only to show that its value must be 
judged by the qualities of the animals through which it has run as 
well as its length, or the number of pure crosses it contains. 

To further elucidate the matter of blood, let us reckon the de- 
grees of impurity in the number of crosses a pedigree may contain, 
by taking a continuation of descent from well-bred Short-horn bulls 
and a common cow, or one of other blood. The 

1st cross gives 1-2 blood Short-horn. 

2d " 3-4 

3d " •• 7-8 " 

4th " 15-16 " " 

5th " 31-32 " " 

6th " 63-64 " 

7th " 127-128 " " 

8th " 255-256 " " 

9th " 511-512 " " 

10th " 1023-1024 " " 

nth " 2047-2048 " " 

12th " 4095-4096 " " 

13th " 8191-8192 " " 

14th " 16383-16384 " " 

15th " 32767-32768 " " 

16th " 65535-65536 " " 

So, this sixteenth cross contains 1-65536 fraction of impure to all the 
other parts of good blood. How much damage, let us ask, in ordi- 
nary probability, will that do the creature possessing it ? And yet the 
bull or cow possessing this 1-65536 part of impure blood, according to 



THE AMERICAN HERD BOOK. 239 

the natural law of descent may, by an extreme chance, either beget or 
produce an offspring which may show in some one feature, or even 
more, a cropping out of its impurity — a remote chance, indeed. Still, 
an animal tint/tout the least taint of impure blood in its veins is better; 
but to ascertain that fact, to a certainty, may be pronounced a sheer 
impossibility when we consider the various authorities on which the 
English pedigrees have from time to time been founded. 

We do not give the above scale, or analysis of approach to pure 
blood, as an encouragement to grade or impure breeding, but to 
demonstrate the almost impossibility of tracing pure breeding back 
to a period in which a remote taint of outside blood may not have 
crept into the veins of an animal, or a tribe of animals, which have 
always passed for thorough-bred, both before and since the year 1822, 
when the first Herd Book was established. We have made the anal- 
ysis also to demonstrate the injustice of condemning an animal 
having a remote taint of impure blood far away back in its English 
lineage where its pedigree has been admitted into the Herd Books of 
that country, even when such remote taint can be traced ; and we 
may assert the injustice also of denying purity of blood to animals 
imported into America without pedigrees at all, both before and 
since the English Herd Book was established, such animals being 
certified by creditable breeders' evidence that they were good Short- 
horns. The names of such originally non-pedigreed animals and 
their produce have been sent back to England for record in the Herd 
Books there, and they have been accepted and recorded as Short- 
horns j whether right or wrong, in all individual instances, we do not 
decide — but there we find them. A short pedigree of but four or five 
crosses, even at the present day, appears to have no terror to Eng- 
lish breeders, as we find bulls recorded, by name only, as late as the 
year 1843, in Vol. 4, by Coates, and in Vols. 6 and 7, in 1846 and 
1847, by Mr. Strafford. We also find many bulls in the continuous 
volumes -down to the 19th, published in 1871, which have only two, 
three, or four known crosses in their pedigrees, and no one, either 
in England or America, appears to question the integrity of their 
blood as legitimately belonging to the Short-horn race. 



240 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

The American Herd Book. 

Having compiled and edited the first volume of this work in the 
year 1846, and its successive volumes to the eleventh, inclusive, down 
to the year 1872, we purpose to give a brief notice of its beginning 
and after continuance. 

Although we had seen a few herds in previous years, we began breed- 
ing Short-horns in 1833, when our first experimental acquaintance was 
made with them. The importation of Mr. Dun into Kentucky in 1833, 
and the Scioto valley importation into Ohio in 1834, spread the Western 
reputation of the Short-horns more widely than any others which had 
preceded them, and the arrivals which annually followed, for several 
years continuously, rapidly increased it. The produce of these im- 
portations added to the produce of previous introductions in other 
States, brought out many new pedigrees. The inconvenience and 
difficulty of sending these American pedigrees to England for record, 
as well as the importance of having a registry nearer home, suggested 
to our consideration some time afterwards the policy of establishing 
an American Herd Book. We had occasional conversations with 
leading breeders of New York on the subject as early as the year 
1843, and also at different times with breeders in other States, and 
endeavored to enlist them into taking a part in its compilation. But 
little confidence., however, was expressed in either the possibility or 
success of such an undertaking, if attempted. Yet impelled by the 
growing conviction that such a work must of necessity ultimately 
come, in the year 1845 we ventured to send out a prospectus for the 
contribution of pedigrees, and assume the compilation of a pioneer 
volume, as an experiment, if nothing more. Although the prospec- 
tus was sent to every then known Short-horn breeder in the country, 
but few responded to it. Some considered it an act of assumption 
for one on this side the Atlantic to attempt an American Herd Book, 
when England had one already established to which the American 
breeders, equally with its own, had access for their records. Another 
discouraging obstacle was in the way : Short-horns were then very 
low in value in this country, as they also were and had been for some 
years past in England. Sales were few, and many breeders felt indif- 
ferent either to the propagation of their stock, or recording their 
pedigrees in a Herd Book anywhere, much less in the United States. 

Under these adverse circumstances the pedigrees contributed were 
comparatively few ; yet, under the advice of several zealous breeders 
whose confidence in the future progress of the Short-horns in our 



THE AMERICAN HERD BOOK. 241 

country, and in the importance of establishing and maintaining a 
domestic record was unflagging, a sufficient number of pedigrees were 
forwarded within a year to venture the compilation of a first volume. 
Accordingly the work was done and an edition of six hundred copies 
printed in the year 1846. It was a meagre book at the best, con- 
taining the records of only 190 bulls, and about 350 cows and 
heifers, with several names of their produce appended. The sales of 
copies were so few, that the work resulted pretty much in a dead 
loss, financially, to say nothing of the time and labor spent upon the 
compilation. With such a result, it may well be supposed that a 
further enterprise of the kind would not be soon attempted. Per- 
haps 150 copies of the book had been sold within a year from its 
issue, and the remaining ones were long stored away in our garret, 
ultimately, as we anticipated, to find their way among other waste 
material to the paper mills. 

In the course of a few years times changed. The year 1852 had 
awakened a new impulse in American Short-horn progress. That 
and the succeeding year had brought some new importations into 
the country, and the spirit in neat stock improvement had become 
aroused to further progress, importance, and extension. 

Several valuable importations of Short-horns having been made 
into Kentucky and Ohio during the year 1853, in the succeeding 
year (1854) many of the spirited breeders in Ohio who had been 
engaged in late importations, formed an association with a large 
subscription list for the payment of premiums, and invited the 
"United States Agricultural Society," then in existence, to hold their 
annual October meeting at Springfield in that State. The society 
accepted the invitation ; wide publicity was given to it, premiums of 
most liberal character were offered in the prize lists (confined chiefly 
to neat cattle of various breeds), and anticipations were indulged — 
among the Short-horn breeders more especially — that it would be an 
event of great interest and gratification, as well as drawing a wide 
attendance ; and in its result the public were not disappointed. The 
Kentuckians came over in strong array, both in person and with 
the choice of their herds. Ohio was " at home," and furnished, as 
might be supposed, a full quota of her best cattle, as well as a mul- 
titude of spectators. Indiana contributed her share of both ; and 
even New York unexpectedly sent a few of its fine Short-horns 
and Devons, while the late liberal-hearted Mr. Roswell L. Colt, oi 
Paterson, N. J., some 600 miles away, sent from his home, a nice 
selection of his unique little Alderneys, which, during some previous 
16 



242 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

years, he had imported and skillfully cultivated. The show of 
Short-horns was numerous, and unequaled in quality at any previous 
exhibition which had taken place in the United States, many costly 
and lately imported ones being on the ground. With a single excep- 
tion the important prizes were all won and promptly paid. 

During the exhibition a copy of the American Herd Book fell 
into the hands of Mr. Brutus J. Clay, one among the many liberal 
and large Short-horn breeders of Kentucky. He had never before 
seen it. On looking it over, and considering the importance of a 
continuation of the work, after consulting with several of the larger 
breeders of his own and other States present, he proposed to its 
editor the publication of a second volume, with a remunerating price 
attached to it, and urged its prosecution. With this encouragement 
the second volume was undertaken, a prospectus circulated, and sev- 
eral hundred contributors sent their pedigrees for publication. In 
the year 1855 the Book was issued, with 980 bull pedigrees, added 
to those of the first volume, making up the whole number to 11 70. 
In addition to the bulls, a much larger number of cows were recorded, 
making altogether, with the introductory matter included, a well-sized 
octavo of about six hundred pages. Thus was promptly established 
the necessity of an American Herd Book. 

The second volume, it must be recollected, was compiled nine 
years after the first one of the American, and eleven years after 
the fourth and fifth volumes of the English Herd Book had been 
given to the public, in which latter ones the great majority of Amer- 
ican pedigrees, published in England, either before or since, were 
recorded. During so long an interregnum the American pedigrees 
had remained in the private memorandums of their breeders, or if 
published at all, were only so in the scattered agricultural papers of 
the day, with no surety that even there the records would be perma- 
nently kept. Meantime, many breeders had given up and sold out 
their herds ; others had died, while a considerable majority of them 
sedulously held on to their stocks, bred them well, kept their pedi- 
grees correctly, and sent them to the second volume of the American 
Herd Book for record. 

At that time there were not a dozen full sets of the English Herd 
Book in America, aside from the few odd volumes, scattered about in 
the hands of different breeders. It may, therefore, be supposed 
that a chaotic mass of material was poured into the hands of the 
editor for examination, compilation, and revision, a labor of most exact- 
ing kind, involving a great amount of toil and investigation, to say 



THE AMERICAN HERD BOOK. 243. 

nothing of the patience required in dissecting, patching together, and 
arranging such promiscuous and miscellaneous matter into intelligible 
shape. But, such as it was, the labor was done. It is but justice to 
say, however, that very many of the pedigrees were made out by their 
breeders in admirable order, with a spirit of truth and integrity 
to have them recorded in a manner challenging the most critical 
investigation ; while others, not familiar with keeping pedigrees, and 
less methodical in their memoranda, sent in a mass of material incon- 
gruous in manner, almost illegible in manuscript, and desperate in the 
hieroglyphics composing the names of their cattle, as well as wrong 
figures in their numbers. The compilation of these last was truly a 
job, and such as under no other circumstances would be again under- 
taken — at least by the compiler of that Herd Book. 

As may be supposed, some errors in name, birth, and genealogy, 
crept into the work. Still, it was welcomed and encouraged by the 
breeders, with a further wish that it should be continued, and in 1857 
a third volume was issued, containing 1298 bulls, and a considerably 
larger number of cows, swelling the whole number of the former to 
2,468, and several hundred more of the latter. This third volume 
also contained sixty-eight corrections of errors in the pedigrees of 
bulls, and about one hundred corrections of errors in the pedigrees 
of cows that were inserted in the second volume. Many of the errors 
were, however, of a trivial kind, not seriously affecting the integrity 
of the pedigrees, while some others were important ; yet, being thus 
promptly corrected, the lines of their lineage were not affected, the 
produce being properly recorded in successive volumes ; and thus the 
work, through varying fortunes, has continued to the publication of 
its eleventh volume in the year 1872, in all containing more than 
30,000 pedigrees ; but the issue of the first six volumes neve?- paid 
the compiler and ptiblisher a penny of pecuniary profit — labor and time 
thrown in. 

We have thus detailed at so much length the history of the Eng- 
lish and American Herd Books to illustrate the zeal and painstaking 
labor of the meritorious class of men who, for a century past, have 
spent their energies to ennoble and improve the valuable race of 
animals to which their attentions have been devoted ; and not alone 
for the private gains anticipated in their cultivation, for on the other 
hand many of the breeders have suffered large pecuniary sacrifices 
in their efforts, through various calamities, from one cause or another, 
which they encountered in their herds. 



244 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Progress of Short-horns in America. Have they Improved 
in Blood, Quality, or Condition, since their first Impor- 
tations? 

To give a short and decisive answer to the above pertinent ques- 
tion, we say they evidently have improved here, as they also have 
in England for many years past ; and although we may not speak of 
English Short-horns exclusively by themselves, yet, as we have received 
various importations almost annually, of some of their choicest ani- 
mals for the past twenty years — equally good as any which the breeders 
retained at home, and many of the best of which have passed under 
our own observation — we shall speak of them in general, both in that 
country and in this. 

We have already shown that late in the last century, and in the 
earlier years of the present, the English Short-horns recorded by 
name and having pedigrees of their lineage were few, and in the 
hands of only a limited number of breeders who sedulously culti- 
vated their better qualities to the highest development which their 
perseverance and skill could command. They labored in their 
praiseworthy vocation for more than forty years before they could 
even establish a record of their pedigrees, and for more than forty 
years longer before they could gain a public recognition of the im- 
portance of such a record, although the cattle were thickly distrib- 
uted in the counties of Northumberland, Durham, York, and Lincoln, 
as a well-established race. Their reputation had also extended into 
various adjoining, and even distant counties, both of England, Scot- 
land, and possibly into Ireland, where many reputable animals had 
been taken and bred with both skill and profit. 

It may be supposed that during that period of eighty years the 
great majority of tenant farmers in the original Short-horn region — ■ 
less active in new enterprises than men of more widely-varied pur- 
suits — paid some attention to improving the qualities of their herds, 
when of the Short-horn race, but not so much attention as did the 
more skillful and thoughtful men whose names we have from 



,ATER IMPROVEMENT IN THE SHORT-HORNS. 245 

time to time mentioned. As a consequence their cattle were less 
refined in quality than those which had been more highly cultivated 
and cherished. Yet, we may presume their herds had been enriched 
by the use of bulls bought from the early popular breeders, and that 
they had progressed to a degree of excellence much beyond what 
they were in the days of their remote, or even immediate, ancestors. 
The extending increase, by their rapidly growing demand, brought 
into use many cows, and even bulls of but moderate quality, although 
of good blood, and from them various herds were bred by their 
enterprising owners with acceptable pedigrees, which found a record 
in the Herd Book when once established. 

There were in those early days occasional animals of wonderful 
quality, with whose history Ave have become familiar; but such 
remarkable ones did not abound in every herd, nor were their excel- 
lences so conspicuous as to give them wide notoriety in the annals of 
their day. Some of the earlier American importations from England 
were from the herds of the Collings, Mason, Wetherell, Maynard, and 
other distinguished breeders of the best cattle of the time ; and also 
from several other reputable breeders known to possess blood of ex- 
cellent quality derived from the ancient well-bred stocks. A very im- 
portant item, however, entered into these earlier importations: they 
had to be obtained at prices within the limits which the buyers 
dared venture on a race of cattle whose success was as yet but an ex- 
periment in this country. As a consequence the costliest ones were 
not purchased and brought to America, but useful, good animals 
of approved blood and pedigrees, such as would stamp their better 
qualities on the common classes of our native stock, and satisfac- 
torily propagate their kind with each other. These animals were, 
no doubt, a full average in quality to the stocks of the reputable 
Short-horn breeders in England at the times they were imported. 
Favorites, Comets, and their like, were then not common there. Nor 
have bulls of the very highest distinction, been common there since ; 
but we venture the assertion that there have been as good bulls bred 
both in England and America since their day as was even Comet ; 
yet Dukes of Northumberland and Commanders-in-Chief, in all their 
striking perfections, may only crop out once in a series of years, 
while many others equally meritorious in all essential qualities may 
be, and are produced now-a-days, both in England and America 
during every successive year. 

Although some excellent, even extraordinarily good Short-horns had 
been imported from time to time into America from England among 



246 HISTORY OF THE SHORT- HORNS. 

the earlier ones, their produce have been improving ever since with 
the American breeders. We venture the assertion that our American 
average is fully equal in their general qualities to the English. 
Those of forty, or even thirty years ago, as a rule, were inferior to 
what th^y are now. We remember many of the imported ones, and 
their looks are yet as familiar to our mind, as they were to our eye 
at the time we saw them. Their handling was less elastic ; although 
their heads and necks were good, their chests were not so broad and 
deep ; their shoulders less expanded and smooth ; their crops more 
depressed, and they exhibited a less full and graceful outline gen- 
erally. Their defects were more striking, and what should comprise 
their chief excellences were not so fully developed as now. We 
might name sundry animals, bulls and cows, with which we were 
familiarly acquainted, winning first prizes in the annual exhibitions of 
Agricultural Societies, twenty-five years ago, which no owner of such 
as they would now venture to lead into a show ring; and still, de- 
scendants of those animals at the present time take the highest honors ; 
but they do so with fresher and costlier strains of blood in their 
veins, and by a more skillful attention being paid to their breeding 
than formerly. Our American breeders have within the past thirty 
years acquired more skill in the propagation of their herds, and as a 
consequence improved their stock in a corresponding degree. They are 
better judges of the qualities of animals than were the breeders of fifty, 
forty, or even less years ago ; yet the older breeders were deserving 
great credit for their efforts, for they had it all to learn, while their suc- 
cessors have had the benefit of their experience and judgment, so far 
as they had acquired it. Added to these advantages, the later breed- 
ers have, with a wise foresight, opened their purses and bought animals 
at prices which in the days of the earlier ones would have been 
deemed ruinous, so far as any returns for their outlays could be 
expected. Such, also, has been the experience in England. Although 
Comet brought $5,000 at Charles Colling's sale in the year 18 10, bulls 
and heifers equally thorough-bred and begotten by his own sire, 
sold for less than a fourth of his price. The price paid for Comet 
was said all over England to be extravagant, and such a sum for a 
bull was never again reached, so far as we can find, until more than 
forty years later, when Mr. Thorne, of New York, bought Grand Duke, 
and 2d Grand Duke, descendants of Comet, at the same bold, and as 
then considered, exhorbitant prices. One or more bulls have since 
been sold in England for Australia at still higher figures ($7,500 for 
one, if we recollect aright), while some remarkable cows have been 



LATER IMPROVEMENT IN THE SHORT-HORNS. 247 

purchased at prices of about $5,000 or more each, to come to 
America, or go to Australia. 

In these enumerations we do not mention the fabulous sums — much 
higher than either of those we have mentioned — which Mr. Bates is 
said to have refused for his Duke of Northumberland, as he had 
many times declared that no price from any other party would obtain 
him. Three to even six thousand dollars each have been paid by 
American breeders for several American-bred bulls, mainly, or par- 
tially of the same blood as those above mentioned. 

Still, pedigree has not altogether made those prices. The animals 
so sold have possessed the highest excellence of quality, superadded. 
The excellence endorsed the pedigree, and the pedigree endorsed the excel- 
lence. Such mutualities of character make up the maximum of worth 
in all blood animals whatever, where the highest points of perfection 
are sought, or found. Another item should be understood when 
naming the prices of such animals :' there is a fashion in their blood. 
No matter whether the fashion give such real increased value or not. 
When men take a fancy to a thing, be it^ Short-horn, Horse, or any- 
thing else, if their purses can afford it, they are quite apt to indulge 
in the luxury of its possession. We could name animals, were we so 
disposed, which thirty years ago one would pass, without notice, 
only that they were Short-horns, yet descended from imported ani- 
mals, with good pedigrees, so run down by neglect as to look not 
worth a hundred dollars each. But taken in hand by good breeders, 
and crossing first-class bulls on them and their produce, in two or 
three generations they were raised to rank in show competitions with 
some of the costliest of recent importations. The purchasers of 
those neglected and inferior animals saw in their pedigrees that good 
blood was there, and believing in the integrity of good pedigree to rest 
upon, and that proper care and keep would restore the excellence that 
ought to be in the creature, they applied the means, and succeeded. 

The fact that our American, as well as the current English herds, 
have been improved within the last forty or fifty years, to a higher 
standard of average excellence than they ever before approached, 
has been questioned by those who say the Short-horns, as a race, are 
no better than they were in the days of the Collings or Maynard, 
the elder Booth or Mason. That the old breeders had some remark- 
ably good animals in their herds there can be no doubt; but all the 
testimony we have found has shown a continuous improvement from 
their days down to the present ; and in the history we have of their 
herds from other breeders of the time when the points of their 



248 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

animals were closely criticised, their defects were such as would exclude 
most of them from a modern English or American prize-ring. That 
the American Short-horns have constantly improved in excellence 
within the last thirty years, and that the average quality of our herds, 
where skill and care have been bestowed upon them, is now higher 
than at any previous period, is a fact beyond contradiction in the 
judgment of accurate observers. 

The Qualities of Pedigrees — Their Titles to Record in the 

Herd Books. 

In our history of the English Herd Book we have learned how 
its pedigrees were originally gathered and admitted to record. We 
have seen, too, the lack of certainty attending the genealogy of 
many animals therein registered. The histories and pedigrees of 
known animals recorded in the first volume, of the year 1822, had 
been accumulating in the written memoranda, and also in the mem- 
ories of men, (a good deal of the latter by tradition only,) for more 
than eighty years. 

It is not necessary to repeat the circumstances under which the 
early pedigrees were admitted into the first Herd Book, nor that the 
same course of admission was pursued in the succeeding volumes 
edited by the Coateses, father and son, for the next twenty-two years, 
until 1844, when the labors of the son terminated with the close of 
the fifth volume. Down to the latter time the five volumes comprised 
a large majority, probably, of the pedigrees of the British breeders, 
and in addition to them many American pedigrees which their breed- 
ers had transmitted across the ocean for record. Yet it must be 
known that a considerable number of American breeders who had 
just as well bred cattle at home, and with just as good pedigrees as 
many that were transmitted to the Herd Book, did not send their 
pedigrees forward, and as a consequence they were not recorded 
in the English volumes. The rule of admission adopted by the 
Coateses appear to have been that any animals showing a reasonable 
evidence of descent from good Short-horn blood were entitled to 
record in the same manner that blooded horses were admitted to the 
"Stud Book;" that is, showing a large preponderance of thorough 
breeding without a known infusion of baser or foreign blood in their 
veins. Yet there were some exceptions to this rule, as we have seen ; 
still in the contrarieties of opinion — some of that opinion based on 
certain knowledge, and some of it not — as well as in the different 



THE QUALITIES OF PEDIGREES. 



249 



private interests and partisan feeling which existed among many of 
the breeders, and partialities in favor of particular strains of blood, 
and equal prejudices against others, perhaps hardly a single breeder 
could be found who would say that the Herd Book was correct in all 
the particulars of its pedigrees. There were fault-finders then, as 
well as now, and some who would be content with nothing which did 
not comport with their own ideas of positive correctness. Amid 
such contrariety of opinion, therefore, the only conclusion could be 
to accept the records as mainly correct, each contributor being satis- 
fied in his own mind that his own pedigrees were quite as good, if 
not better than the average of his neighbors. 

The fact may be also understood that the first Herd Book con- 
tained only a small minority of the well-bred cattle which had existed 
for the past fifty years ; neither did it embrace anything like the full 
number of well-bred Short-horns alive at the time of its publication. 
For instance : Charles Colling had but 59 of all the animals he ever 
bred recorded in it, although in his thirty years of breeding he had 
probably bred and sold some hundreds of thorough-breds, and left 
breeding twelve years before the book was printed. Robert Colling, 
who bred cattle down to two years of its publication had only 93 of 
all his extensive herds recorded. The three Booths, Thomas, John 
and Richard — father and sons — then in the full career of their 
breeding, had but 52; Major Bower had 56; Mr. Coates had 42; 
Mr. Compton had 19; Mr. Currier 20; Mr. Donkin 15; Mr. Earn- 
shaw iS; Mr. Gibson 47; Mr. Hutchinson, of Stockton, 54; Sir 
Henry Carr Ibbetson 28; the two Joblings 30; Mr. Mason 77; the 
three Maynards 15; Col. Mellish 30; Mr. Ostler 18; Mr. Parker 20; 
Mr. Parrington 15; Mr. Robertson 2^; Major Rudd 35; Mr. Sey- 
mour 18; Mr. Simpson 60; Mr. Smith 44; Mr. Spoors 25 ; Sir Henry 
Vane Tempest 13 ; Mr. Chesterfield 27 ; Col. Trotter ^8 ; Mr. Wailes 
15; Mr. Wetherell 45; Mr. Whittaker 46; Mr. Wright 35; Miss 
Wright 35 ; and they comprised the chief contributors of pedigrees, 
and were all old breeders. The remainder of pedigrees which the 
book contained were contributed by the smaller breeders, besides 
very many animals known by name and tradition only, with no breed- 
er's or owner's name appended to them. Such a record, with much 
of it so loosely made up, would be utterly condemned at the present 
day by some who suppose that a well-bred Short-horn should carry 
its pedigree back for centuries ; but others who know that a geneal- 
ogy among brute animals must begin at sometime " when the memory 
of man runneth not to the contrary," will be content to accept the 



250 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

dates and pedigrees of the Short-horns as they stand in Coates' five 
volumes, and there leave them. 

It may be supposed that the several men engaged in breeding had 
sold during the anterior years of their labors a large number of well- 
bred Short-horns, which had not found their way into the first, nor 
afterwards into either the second or third volumes of the Herd Book ; 
but many of them, and the produce of two or three of their descend- 
ing generations, may have come into the fourth and fifth, which in the 
year 1844, at the end of twenty-two years from the publication of the 
first, embraced an addition of 3,802 bulls, and full as many cows, thus 
gathering during the last seven years since volume three was printed 
a large majority of the well-bred Short-horns of England, Scotland 
and Ireland, entitled to record, besides many additional American 
pedigrees beyond what were recorded in the previous books. 

The fourth volume, containing only bulls, like the first, second and 
third, had many animals by name simply, some with only a sire, 
others with but a single sire and dam ; many more with not over two 
or three known crosses, and a large number of them without notice 
by whom they were bred, or when they were born — whether in the 
last century or the present — thus gathering the known animals of the 
race under one legitimate fountain-head where their future pro- 
duce could be traced into a common genealogy of blood, whether 
that blood could be definitely traced further back into pure sources, 
or not. In this general " consolidation " — to use a comprehensive 
phrase of the present day — the British Short-horn public at large 
acquiesced and were satisfied. With a very- few noted exceptions, 
everything recorded there was considered by the general consent of 
English breeders a "Herd Book Short-horn," and as such, its pro- 
duce was entitled to record in any and every future Herd Book 
which should be anywhere published. 

To an antiquarian in Short-horn genealogy the above summary 
may seem to arrive at both a sweeping and arbitrary conclusion. 
Yet the breeding world of Great Britain sustained it, and followed 
out their own pedigrees in pursuance of the then established records 
from which there has been little or no appeal ; or if appeal were 
made it was only in personal complaints, to which the breeding pub- 
lic paid no particular attention, falling back on the Herd Book 
record, after all, as the standard of blood and genealogy, there being 
no appellate court to set the records aside. 

The sixth volume of the Herd Book, under Mr. Strafford's com- 
pilation, followed the fifth volume of Coates' within the next two 



THE QUALITIES OF PEDIGREES. 25 I 

years, in 1S46, and under the same order and system of record the 
successive volumes have continued at intervals of about two years 
down to the nineteenth, issued in 187 1. Yet the non-pedigreed 
animals became fewer as time progressed; but short pedigrees, with 
only two, three, or four crosses have been continued down and even 
into the last volume. A word as to why these short pedigrees have 
been, and also may in future volumes be so continued. It is well 
known in England, and ought to be as well known in America, that 
many herds of well-bred Short-horns exist at the present day in 
Britain, the owners of which have never kept written records of their 
breeding, and whose pedigrees have never found their way into the 
Herd Books. We give an instance : When Mr. John R. Page, the 
well-known American cattle artist, was in England a few years ago, 
looking over Mr. T. C. Booth's herd with him one day in their pas- 
ture, he remarked somewhat on the short pedigrees to some- of the 
cattle which Mr. Booth, as well as other breeders of celebrity had 
in their herds. "Look out on yonder field," said Mr. Booth, point- 
ing to a broad pasture on a hill some half a mile distant where 
were grazing a fine herd of Short-horns ; " do you see those cattle ? " 
"I do," answered Mr. Page. "Well, sir, the owner of that herd 
is an old dairyman and stock raiser. I have known him, his herd 
and their history, from my boyhood. His father bred the progeni- 
tors of that herd, which were good Short-horns in the days of my 
grandfather, Thomas Booth, in the year 1780, and the cows have 
been bred from that day to the present time to bulls belonging to 
him, my own father, my uncle Richard, and myself. Why are they 
not good Short-horns, although a pedigree beyond two or three 
crosses cannot be traced among them ? " Mr. A. B. Allen, of New 
York, related to us that when in England in the year 1841, he saw 
several herds of good Short-horns, which had been long bred in the 
same manner to noted bulls of other breeders. 

We do not give the above relations to excuse the neglect of 
recording pedigrees, or to justify short pedigrees which cannot be 
traced into thorough-bred Herd Book parents on both sides ; but as a 
fact showing that there are men in England who are as careful in 
the blood of their cattle bred only for economical uses as those who 
rear their stock for the sale of pedigree animals alone ; but not breed- 
ing for the latter purpose they pay no attention to recording their 
cattle in the Herd Book. And this may account for many of the 
short pedigrees of the present day in some English herds, together 
with many which have been imported to the United States within 



252 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

the last forty or fifty years, with little or no pedigree at all attached 
to them. 

The above explanations have appeared to be necessary in order to 
understand the exact condition of the English Herd Book, and the 
principles on which it was founded. 

The Pedigrees of the American Herd Book. 

Assuming the necessity of a Herd Book on this side the Atlantic, 
there could be no other plan so well adopted for its compilation as 
that of the English. To the records of the latter the Americans 
must resort for the lineage of all their pedigrees tracing to animals 
which found a place in it. In addition to that, Short-horns imported 
from England to America, together with their descendants, whether 
recorded in the English volumes or not, with equal evidences of good 
breeding as very many others which were recorded in their pages, had 
equally good title to enter the American books, particularly when 
many of their contemporaries had already found a record there. 

As has been observed, the year 1844 closed the labors of the 
Coateses with the fifth volume of the English work, and the several 
books down to that time contained many pedigrees of American 
cattle. In the year 1846 the first small volume of the American, 
and the sixth volume of the English, under Mr. Strafford, were simul- 
taneously published, but neither of them, we believe, known to the 
compiler of the other, at the time. Of course the two books, or 
their editors, had no relations with each other. The American was 
an independent work altogether. Its sole object was to establish 
a record for American-bred animals, without interference with either 
the past or the future English records, yet upon the same basis of 
admission. 

Questions had arisen among the American breeders as to what 
bloods, tribes, or pedigrees ought to be admitted into an American 
book in the event of one being published, for even in the early days 
of our Short-horn breeding some partisan feeling had arisen as to 
what pedigrees were or what were not entitled to a record as well- 
bred Short-horns. About the year 1840, or soon afterwards, as we 
have learned, the principal Kentucky breeders came to a resolu- 
tion to get up an American Herd Book, and Capt. Benjamin Warfield, 
of Fayette, now deceased, together with Dr. Samuel D. Martin, of 
Clark, and Mr. Robert W. Scott, of Franklin counties — the two last 
named gentlemen still living — were appointed a committee to receive 



THE QUALITIES OF PEDIGREES. 253 

pedigrees, examine and decide upon their merits and compile the 
records. Many pedigrees were sent to them ; they had several meet- 
ings on the subject, but after much consideration the whole matter 
was indefinitely postponed, and nothing came of it. Nor was it 
likely that any other committee would arrive at any definite conclu- 
sions, particularly when conflicting opinions, and possibly interests in 
the way of blood and pedigrees would interfere. Thus the way was 
left open to individual enterprise, and insignificant as its first effort 
promised, the opportunity was ventured. 

Opposing questions, if such existed, relating to the authenticity of 
the pedigrees to be admitted to its pages did not enter into the com- 
pilation of the first volume, although many of the elder breeders in 
several States were consulted. But when the second volume was 
about to be issued, questions were addressed to them, and the gist of 
their opinions seemed to be reached in a letter from the late Rev. Dr. 
Breckenridge, of Danville, Ky., who, aside from his professional 
labors, was a veteran breeder of Short-horns and other improved 
stock in Kentucky, to the editor, in which he remarked : 

" I think you act wisely in accepting all pedigrees which run 
back into the English Herd Books ; for, right or wrong, that is the 
fountain of the genealogy of the race at present. But, having taken 
that apparently inevitable step, it seems to be impossible to refuse to 
take the next, necessitated by that one, namely, to accept all Ameri- 
can pedigrees as good as the average pedigrees of the English Herd 
Book. These two principles cover the whole ground ; and all the 
rest is merely a question of truth in the alleged pedigrees, concern- 
ing which, unless the contrary appears, you cannot well avoid recog- 
nizing the truth of pedigrees that on their face appear to be true. 

" After all, a Herd Book is but a record office. It can neither settle 
the quality nor the title of the estate admitted to record." 

These remarks, so full of sound logic and good sense, were adopted 
by the editor, and pedigrees admitted to the English Herd Book were 
taken as a standard for the future records of the American work. 

Looking at the condition of the American herds and their pedi- 
grees, let us see how they stood. The early Kentucky and Ohio Short- 
horn herds had been chiefly founded, first on the Gough or Goff and 
Miller, or Patton stock, and afterwards commingled with the Sanders 
importation of 181 7, all of them without known pedigrees, as no 
English Herd Book had then been published; but the 1817's were 
certified in their bills of purchase to be well-bred Short-horns. Many 
of the female produce of these herds, after the year 1826, were bred 



254 HISTORY OF THE SHORT- HORNS. 

to recorded bulls from the imported herds of Colonel Powel and 
others, from the Eastern States, and the pedigrees of many of 
their progeny had been accepted and recorded in the fourth and fifth 
volumes of the English Herd Book, together with some of the orig- 
inals from which they sprung. That there may be no misunderstand- 
ing of the matter we give a list of some of the bulls of the Patton 
and 1817 stocks and other originally ;w;z-pedigreed ones recorded 
there, to which we might add an equal or larger number of cows of 
like quality and pedigree also recorded. They are as follows, the 
numbers of the bulls attached. The words after the numbers are 
our own : 

Florian (6018), bred by C. N. Bement, Albany, N. Y., running back 
to the Cox importation of 1816. 

Paul Jones (4661), got by San Martin (2599), out of Mrs. Motte, 
Ky. imp. 1817. 

Tecumseh (5409), was of the Ky. imp. of 1817, by Col. Sanders. 

San Martin (2599), Ky. imp. 18 17, by Col. Sanders. 

Corwin (3500), bred by M. L. Sullivant, ending in imp. dam Flora, 
bred by Mr. Mason, of Chilton. 

Embassador (37 n), a Hereford bull, imported by Henry Clay 
into Kentucky in the year 18 16. 

Rising Sun (6386), a Long-horn bull, imported by Col. Sanders 
into Kentucky in 1817. 

Independence (4070), got by Ajax (2944), no dam, bred by Gen. 
Van Rensselaer, Albany, N. Y., although known to be descended 
from imp. Pansy, by Blaize (76), etc. 

Shannon (5 in), ending in Flora, same as Corwin, above. 

Buzzard (3253), of the Gough and Miller Virginia importation in 
the year 1785, or soon afterwards. 

Charles (3344), of Ky. imp. 1817, ending in Buzzard (3253). 

Chieftain (3369), ending in the Teeswater cow,-Ky. imp. 1817. 

Clarke (3394), ending in the Durham cow, Ky. imp. 1817. 

Fantastical (3760), ending in Ky. imp. 1817. 

Farmer (3763), ending in Buzzard (3253). 

Goldfinder (3909), ending in Teeswater cow, Ky. imp. 1817. 

Harrison (3979), ending in Buzzard (3253). 

Kleber (4165), ending in a son of Rising Sun (6386), and the 
Teeswater cow, Ky. imp. 181 7. 

Lannes (4182), ending in the Teeswater cow, Ky. imp. 1817. 

Lofty (4245), ending in Buzzard (3253). 

Major (4340), ending in Teeswater cow, Ky. imp. 181 7. 



THE QUALITIES OF PEDIGREES. 255 

Mohawk (4492), by Tccumseh (5409), out of Mrs. Motte, both of 
Ky. imp. 1817. 

Mohican (4493), ending in Buzzard (3253). 

Priam (4762), ending in Buzzard (3253). 

Ranter (4781), ending in the Teeswater cow. 

Rufus (5034), ending in the Teeswater cow 

Sambo (5073), ending in Buzzard (3253). 

Sir Henry (5158), ending in the Durham cow, Ky. imp. 1817. 

Superior (5359), ending in same as Kleber (4165). 

Andrew (5755), ending in Durham cow, Ky. imp. 181 7. 

Billy Button (5795), ending in Buzzard (3253). 

Goldbud (6042), ending in Teeswater cow, Ky. imp. 1817. 

Indian Chief (6090), ending in Durham cow, Ky. imp. 18 17 

Sultan (6552), ending in Buzzard (3253). 

Winfield (6687), ending in Teeswater cow. 

Wonder (6689), ending in Teeswater cow. 

There are carpers knowing little of the subject, as we infer after 
reading some of their criticisms, who profess to detect sundry grade 
or spurious pedigrees in the American volumes, (a few cases of which 
may possibly be so,) and besides them, condemn in one sweeping 
clause the pedigrees of the descendants of the "Patton stock," and 
also those of the Kentucky importation of 1817, together with sundry 
others, of which they know quite as little as they do of them. 

Let us look somewhat into these animals and their asserted qual- 
ities. The true blood of the Patton stock, we admit, is somewhat 
cloudy in its origin. But we give the evidence of many of the 
venerable leading breeders of past days, some of whom years 
ago passed away, while others are still living. Among the de- 
ceased were Col. Lewis Sanders, the importer of the 1817 stock; the 
brothers Dr. Elisha and Capt. Benjamin Warfield, Capt. John Cun- 
ningham, Mr. Walter Dun, Dr. Breckenridge, of Kentucky, together 
with Gov. Allen Trimble and Mr. George Renick, of Ohio. There 
were others, also deceased, not now recollected. To these we add the 
names of the venerables Robert W. Scott, Samuel D. Martin, Jere- 
miah Duncan, Rev. John Allen Gano, Rev. R. T. Dillard, B. W. 
and B. T. Dudley, Issacher Fisher, Micajah Burnett, of the United 
Society of- Shakers at Pleasant Hill, together with Ithamer Johnson 
and Peter Boyd, of the Society of Shakers, Union Village, Ohio, still 
living. Several of the above named gentlemen, now dead, we per- 
sonally knew years ago; some of the others yet alive we are well 
acquainted with, and they who knew the animals, without difference 



256 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

of opinion, have assured us that the early Patton bulls — Buzzard 
(3253); Pluto, 825; Mars, 1850; and Shaker, 2193 — taken into Ken- 
tucky and Ohio, had the appearance and characteristics of Short- 
horns, and good ones ; while those of the well-known Kentucky 
importation of 18 17 — bulls and cows alike — were, to all appearance, 
true Short-horns, showing purity of blood, with the distinguishing 
qualities of good breeding, which mark the race at the present day. 
Yet these animals had no written pedigrees, being sent out of Eng- 
land years before a Herd Book was known in that country, and what 
genealogy they had was only kept in the private notes or memoranda 
of their breeders, or retained in their memories, or by tradition, 
except that of the cow Mrs. Motte, whose pedigree has since 
been traced in our previous account of the particulars of the 181 7 
importation. 

We are not disposed to argue the question of the purity of Short- 
horn descent in all or any one of these animals, nor of any others which 
have come into the country claiming to be well-bred Short-horns, but 
without certified pedigrees. We purpose to calmly and plainly state 
facts, so far as we have been able to obtain them. We are aware that 
of late there has grown up a prejudice against the blood of the above 
named tribes of cattle — right or wrong, we do not decide, yet we 
believe very much of that prejudice to be unfounded. 

Let us state the case clearly. When the Patton bulls came into 
Kentucky, although the blue-grass region at that early day had herds 
of good native cattle, they were at once recognized as a superior 
breed to any ever before seen in that locality, and were immediately 
adopted and encouraged for use in breeding by the most sagacious 
of the cattle breeders there. In course of time came the 1817 im- 
portation of Col. Sanders. They were represented as without taint 
or blemish of outside blood in their compositions ; as true Short- 
horns from near the river Tees, the ancient, and then best known 
home of the race. That was five years before the name of a public 
Herd Book was known in that or any other country. The enter- 
prising cattle breeders of Kentucky at once adopted them, as well as 
the Hereford bull Embassador, and the Long-horn bull Rising Sun, 
which were both of good and ancient established breeds, and down 
to the present day are held in high estimation in England. These 
two bulls were not much used, the Short-horns having a decided 
preference with the principal breeders, and after some crosses on the 
Short-horns they soon run out, leaving but few visible traces of their 
blood among them. This course of breeding continued several 



THE QUALITIES OF PEDIGREES. 257 

years, and until bulls were bought from Col. Powel, of Philadelphia, 
who had begun his Short-horn importations in the year 1824, two 
years after the first English Herd Book was issued, wherein the 
pedigrees of his stock were recorded. 

Philadelphia and Baltimore for many years had been the principal, 
perhaps the only markets at which the Kentucky and central Ohio 
breeders and drovers sold their best beef cattle, and they soon found 
and saw the newly imported Short-horns. Ascertaining that some 
of them were for sale, they wisely opened their purses and obtained 
a few choice ones — bulls to cross upon their Patton and 181 7 bloods, 
and cows to rear from them younger and equally pure blooded ones 
with which to perpetuate their stocks. From that time forward 
the Kentucky, and such of the Ohio breeders as had adopted them, 
throve apace with their herds, exhibited them at their domestic cattle 
shows, took prizes in competition with each other, and sold their 
surplus animals to their neighbors, and into other States, gave them 
pedigrees, truly, no doubt, yet the great majority of them ending in 
the "Durham cow," the "Teeswater cow," "Mrs. Motte," or with the 
bulls Buzzard, Pluto, Mars, Shaker, of the Patton stock, with the other 
names of San Martin (2599), Tecumseh (5409), Comet, and Prince 
Regent (of 1S17), occurring in more or less of the pedigrees.* Thus 
the Patton, the Sanders importation of 181 7, and the later Powel stocks 
were all intermingled in the general class of Short-horns, and many 
of their pedigrees sent over to the successive volumes of the English 
Herd Book for record, where they were welcomed and published 
without reserve or exception. Among them were frequent animals 
(as related by several of the old breeders who have been mentioned) 
which would pass creditably in most of the modern herds. Numer- 
ous descendants of those stocks have been distinguished as prize 
winners, even down to the present day, in some of the noted show- 
rings of the Short-horn localities. 

"With the array of early animals without known pedigrees, both 
imported, and American bred, which we find recorded in the English 
Herd Book, it legitimately follows that the breeders of them and their 
produce were entitled to a continuation of such pedigrees in the 
American record ; and equally entitled to admission by the side of 
them were like pedigrees of animals of other breeders, which had not 
been sent to England for record. The proposition needs no argument. 

*It is proper to state here that the pedigrees of the bulls Pluto, 825 ; Mars, 1S50 ; Shaker, 2193 ; 
Comet, 1382, and Prince Regent, 877, whose numbers are only in the American Herd Book, were 
not publicly recorded until the 2d and 3d volumes of the latter were published. 

17 



258 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

There is still another class of imported non-pedigreed Short-horns, 
or with but a single cross or two of pedigree attending them, which 
need alike explanation, as the Pattons and 181 7 's. From the year 
1 8 1 6, (in which the Cox importation into Rensselaer county, N. Y., 
was made,) and during later years, to 1830, sundry Short-horns were 
brought over from England, to all appearance well bred, and so certi- 
fied by the breeders' certificates. Some of these and their produce 
had also been recorded in the English Herd Book, and of course were 
entitled to record in the American. Cox's bull is (3513), E. H. B. 

Yet a later class of non-pedigreed cows — or with only a single 
cross or two attached — have been introduced, beginning in 1834, 
with the first importation of the Ohio Company, and continued dur- 
ing the two or three years of their subsequent arrivals. A few such 
cows came out with other good pedigreed ones to Kentucky in 
1837-9. Some others were also imported into several of the Eastern 
States and there bred. These short, and non-pedigreed ones, were 
purchased of the same classes of breeders as were the pedigreed 
cows, and some of them came over in the same ships with them. 
They were, apparently, equally well bred, showed as well in quality, 
and the buyers were assured by their English breeders of whom they 
purchased them that they were thorough-bred Short-horns, although 
they gave no written evidence of the fact. Why the short, or non- 
pedigreed cows were bought, when those having good pedigrees 
could be readily obtained, it is now hard to say. But most of them 
were accepted by our home breeders in their several localities, on 
their arrival, as pure Short-horns, their produce have been recorded 
in the Herd Books, and they stand unquestioned in public opinion 
as well-bred animals. We do not name the cows alluded to, but 
they and their produce can be readily found by referring to the 
records. The same state of facts apply to other cows which were 
imported a dozen or fifteen years later into several States. On look- 
ing at the circumstances attending these later non-pedigreed cows of 
1834 to 1856, and the like circumstances attending the importations 
of 1 81 7 to 1830, twenty to thirty odd years earlier, and with equal 
evidences of good breeding, we fail to discover the equity of reason- 
ing which makes the produce of the later ones thorongh-breds, and 
leaves the produce of the earlier ones, with several additional and 
equally good crosses in their veins, oxs\y grade animals ! All the non- 
pedigree classes we have named having been admitted to record 
in the English Herd Book, they could not be excluded from the 
American record without upsetting the entire system on which the 



THE QUALITIES OF PEDIGREES. 259 

English work had been founded, conducted and sanctioned by the 
Short-horn public in both hemispheres. 

If later breeders objected to these pedigrees, or had little confi- 
dence in the blood of the stock which the pedigrees represented, 
they had only to let them alone, and select their stocks from others 
more to their liking. It was no detriment to other preferred pedi- 
grees that the objectionable ones were there. Their supposed inferior 
blood could not injure the better blood of others, recorded by the 
side of them. The idea that an impure pedigree being recorded 
in the Herd Book, makes it pure, is a fallacy of the sheerest kind. 
Every pedigree rests on its own merits or demerits, and by such they 
are to be judged. 

In this discussion of the admission of past pedigrees in the Herd 
Books, it is not to be inferred that impure-blooded animals, or grades 
known and understood as such, should be admitted to record. We 
simply say in conclusion of this particular topic, that the strains of 
blood which have been admitted into the English Herd Book are 
equally entitled to admission into the American. The breeder can 
either include them in his selection or reject them, as his interests or 
tastes may determine. 

Having summed up at such length the situation of the Herd 
Books, both English and American, and the question of their pedi- 
grees, we may not have allayed a single prejudice against any tribes, 
bloods, or strains of blood which may exist in the minds of any 
breeders; nor have we wished to detract from the merits of others to 
which they may be partial. We have only aimed to relate facts 
which may enlighten doubting minds, and satisfy hesitating conclu- 
sions as to certain bloods and genealogies. If we have made clear 
matters which have heretofore been doubtful, our aim has been accom- 
plished ; if not, we can only regret that our labor has been in vain. 

Fastidious critics may object to the remote taints of Hereford and 
Long-horn blood which may be traced into some of the early Ken- 
tucky pedigrees ; but when it is recollected that both these breeds are 
of ancient descent, and at the present day are highly esteemed in 
England — preferred, even, in their own localities, to the Short-horns — 
the i-i2Sth, i-256th, i-5i2th, or less fraction of these bloods in their 
veins works no irreparable injury, any more than did the distant taint 
of Charles Colling's Galloway, or the imputed West Highland crosses 
of nearly a century ago work a deadly objection to many English 
Short-horns of their own time. We say this not as advocating these 
outside crosses; on the other hand we object to them; but being 



260 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

adopted in the English Herd Book, which is our standard authority, 
they cannot be consistently ruled out of the classification. 

Another thing should be recollected by the breeders who claim 
that their own herds are untainted by these remotely questionable 
pedigrees. Their own superior bulls and cows, as they term them, 
find frequent and some of their best customers among the breeders 
of the 1817 and other early non-pedigreed imported stocks, and there 
need exist no jealousy on the part of the untainted pedigree breeders 
that their own bloods are to be cheapened by reason of the others 
being tolerated. There is room and scope for all in our broad and 
rapidly developing country, and so long as individual choice in bloods 
and pedigrees is open to the public, superior merit, both in pedi- 
gree and quality, will assert its claims in the judgment of all who 
have an eye to the improvement of their stocks. 

If it be objected against those far-away slightly tainted stocks 
that they (as may possibly be the case) throw out an occasional 
progeny betraying the foreign blood, let it be also understood that 
an occasional defective product of even the most approved tribes 
is also witnessed. It is simply nonsense to assert that even the best 
of blood will, in every individual instance, breed its own like ' in its 
descendants. Animal nature is always exceptional, more or less, in 
the production of its kind, from humanity itself, down to the lowest 
grades of domesticated things, and we must submit to results as we 
find them, doing the best we can, meanwhile, by proper means and 
care, to promote the most successful issues to our labors. 

Notes on Breeding. 

After the exhaustive, and possibly tiresome historical matter we 
have recorded, the reader and breeder will hardly expect from us an 
essay on the proper breeding of Short-horns as a basis of instruction 
to further efforts in the improvement of his stock. Numerous essays 
have been written, various in theory and opinion — some wisely, and 
some not — which have been studied by thoughtful physiologists and 
breeders, frequently with profit, and sometimes without. Our own 
ideas on this important subject have been given in a work lately 
issued from the press, entitled "American Cattle, their History, 
Breeding, and Management," which can be obtained at almost any 
of the book collections of the agricultural papers in the country. 
We have little, if anything, to say in addition to what has been 
written there, and to that work we refer the inquirer, if he wishes 



NOTES ON BREEDING. 261 

to investigate the subject further than what his own previous read- 
ing and observation have already done. 

The disposition of almost every Short-horn breeder to record his 
pedigrees in the Herd Book is a testimony of the importance which 
he concedes to it. He there finds the records of animals by name 
and pedigree, which public opinion has decided to be of the highest 
standards of blood and excellence thus far attained, and his own 
observation (if he has kept up with the progress of the race) must 
have educated him to know what a good animal should be. If in all 
these he has yet formed no ideas of guidance for a further improve- 
ment in his herd, we fail to know how he can be instructed. If he 
decide to proceed on the " in-and-in system," (breeding closely together 
those which are of the same family blood,) he must be cautious in the 
choice of animals which it may be safe to couple with each other — 
wise if rightly done, but hazardous if not; or, if out-and-out (breed- 
ing with such animals as are not close of kin) be his choice, equal 
care and consideration must be given that their style, figure, and con- 
formation be such as to blend their good qualities, and exclude the 
bad, if either one possess them. 

A large majority of the American Short-horn breeders, now that 
the race has been generally adopted as the best and most profitable 
for flesh-producing purposes, (not only in their fullness of blood, but as 
instruments for improving the lower orders of our native stock to 
the most profitable development,) propagate their animals mainly 
for that object, apparently regardless of the milking faculty of the 
cow, as the dairy product forms little or no part of the revenue 
expected from her. Yet, it has been seen in the progress of our 
history, that the Short-horn, from the earliest account we have of 
her, has been a good milker, and that quality was fostered by most 
of the early breeders of which we have an account, and is still 
encouraged in her use by such as esteem it of any considerable im- 
portance. The dairy quality may be partially bred out, if the breeder 
so desire it, or equally well retained if he so wish it, by the use of 
bulls descended from cows of like tendencies. It is only for him to 
choose which course to pursue, and in so doing he need not forget, in 
view of the examples we have recorded, and his own observation also, 
that after having done her full duty in breeding, and at the pail, she 
fulfills her destiny in a profitable carcass at the shambles. He must 
remember, however, that the cow cannot well carry a full carcass of 
flesh while yielding generous flows of milk to the dairy, and conse- 
quently will show less attractively to the eye than one giving little or 



262 HISTORY OF THE SHORT- HORNS. 

no milk in the plenitude of good pasturage, or stall-feeding. But her 
produce will show equally well, with the same care and keeping, (if 
that produce be devoted solely to flesh purposes,) as the progeny of 
the other and fleshier one. 

In a past notice we have tried to give the points of a perfect Short- 
horn ; and the nearer an animal approaches perfection in its anatomy, 
the more valuable it is for flesh-producing purposes, as such anatomy 
yields the best product in the choicer parts of the carcass, and of 
course more profitable to the seller and consumer. Therefore the 
nearer perfection a breeding bull approaches in his various points, 
the more valuable he is as a getter. For such a bull, to the breeder 
of grade stock for the shambles only, it is more economical to pay 
a round price than to take a defective one at a much lower price, or 
even as a gift. Such is the reason why experienced breeders some- 
times pay enormous prices for extraordinarily good bulls, as we have 
known ; not that such bulls are to be used on native or low-bred cows 
for grade breeding, but that on good thorough-bred cows they beget 
a much higher class of bulls than are usually sought for more 
common uses. It is, therefore, an object for any breeder, and for 
whatever purpose, to command as good blood in the bulls of his herd 
as circumstances will admit. 

Let cotitinuous improvement in Mood, quality, and style of his ani- 
mals be the aim of every breeder, and never for any trivial purpose 
lose sight of it. The new breeder in selecting the females to compose- 
his herd, if he have a preference for any particular strain of blood, 
should determine which he will adopt, and then obtaining the best 
selections he can from them go on persistently in breeding, still bear- 
ing in mind that tmiformity in the characters of his herd, when coupled 
with true excellence, is a great merit, giving conspicuity and reputation 
to the breeder, and of course, a superior selling value to his animals. 
A herd so established, in the present convenient ways of locomotion 
through our country, need not suffer from the evils — if men so 
think — of too close interbreeding. There are bulls enough, mainly 
of the same blood and lineage, scattered over the Short-horn districts 
of the United States and Canadas, to give fresh crosses in every 
herd of their own tribes when such crosses become necessary. 

Quality and pedigree both, should go together ; each endorse the 
virtues of the other. Yet, even defect in the quality of a bull may be 
remedied by the superior excellences of his pedigree, when that ped- 
igree has run through some previous generations of marked distinction. 
Among many bulls which, without any noticeable characteristics of 



NOTES ON BREEDING. 263 

superior quality in themselves, have proved remarkably good getters, 
may be named Robert Colling's Lancaster (360), white, calved in 
1814; and Thomas Bates' Short Tail (2621), red and white, calved 
in 1824; both small and inferior looking bulls, yet they begat many 
among the best animals of their day. We mention these not to give 
any preference to their particular bloods, or families, but because 
they were comparatively mean in appearance. Others and parallel 
instances of the kind may occur to the recollection of the reader. 

Thorough-breds — Full-bloods. 

The above terms have been frequently applied, for many years 
past, among the Short-horn breeders of the Mississippi valley, to 
designate a difference in the bloods of Short-horns — "thorough- 
breds " meaning such animals as run their pedigrees back into the 
Herd Books without taint of known other blood j while "full-bloods" 
mean such pedigrees as run back through many Herd Book crosses 
into unknown lineage. We consider the term "full-blood," thus used, 
as simply conventional with those applying it. Thorough-bred and 
/////-blood are identical in meaning, if language has any signification. 
Thorough means full, and full means thorough, according to the 
dictionaries. The manner in which the terms have been used is 
erroneous, and the practice of it only confuses the inexperienced 
breeder, is of no service to the matured one, and should be discon- 
tinued. If a convention of Short-horn breeders, representing all the 
different sentiments and opinions which prevail relating to bloods 
and pedigrees could declare, through unanimity of opinion, at what 
fraction of outside or foreign blood, a pedigree should be admitted to, 
or excluded from a Herd Book record, an important point might be 
gained; but until such decision can be made, "thorough-bred" and 
"full-blood" may mean something, or nothing, in the way of distinc- 
tion, as those who use the terms may decide. The entire pedigree of 
the animal in question, so far as ascertainable, is the only proof of 
breeding, and that must be determined by the Herd Book, if no better 
record can be found. 



We here conclude our historical labors. Much collateral matter 
has, of necessity, been introduced as explanatory to incidents and 
facts which would appear uncertain or doubtful without it. Much 
more than has been gathered into these pages we might have written 
relating to sundry animals in many of the English, as well as our 



264 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 

American herds, but which, had we done so, although it might gratify 
curiosity, would not change any individual opinions which may exist 
touching either the merits of their blood, or the authenticity of their 
pedigrees. 

So long as select breeding in any race of animals is followed there 
will be preferences for particular bloods, tribes and individual animals, 
with their different strains of genealogy, over others ; and there will 
be more or less party spirit betrayed in discussions which may arise 
regarding them. No individual judgment can definitely settle those 
disputed questions, and merit or demerit will have its award mainly 
in private opinion rather than through acquiescence in any public de- 
cision, even if such decision should be attempted ; and if attempted, 
would be simply impossible. 



INDEX. 



Page 
Agriculture in England — Early Authors,.. 17 

American Cow, 54 

Alloy of the Galloway, bred by Charles 

Colling, 65-68 

Althorp, Lord, 149 

American Short-horns — Their History — 155 

Their Improvement, 244 

American Pedigrees in English Herd Book, 254 

Bulls, Studley bull 28 

J. Brown's red bull, 29 

Other noted early bulls, 30 

Huhback, 36 

Foljambe, 43 

Bolingbroke, Favorite, Comet, 44 

Belvedere, 127 

Bakewell, Robert, as a stock-breeder 33 

Berry, Rev. Henry, 61 

Bell's 1 Thomas) Short-horn History, 118 

Breeding, Charles Colling's mode of, 46 

Robert Colling's mode of, 53 

Booth family, as Short-horn breeders — 

Career during three generations, 95-117 

Bates, Thomas, his early life, cattle breed- 
ing and history, 11S-147 

Death, 138 

Sale of his herd, 138 

Did he improve the Short-horns,.. . 144 
Breckenridge's (Rev. R. J.) opinion of 

Pedigrees, 253 

Breeding, notes on, 260 

Cow on Durham Cathedral, 20-21 

Chillingham wild Cattle, 24 

Colling, Robert and Charles, 31 

Cows, The Stanwick, or original Duchess, 41 
Lady Maynard and V. Strawberry,. 42 

Phcenix, 44 

Habghton, 57 

Duchess, by Daisy bull 123 

Duchess 1st, 123 

Duchess 34th, 128 

Matchem Cow, 129 

High prices paid for in early days,. . 150 
As Milkers, 215 



Page 

Colling's (Charles) Sale in 1812, 69-76 

Colling's (Robert) Sale in 1818 and 1820,.. 77-92 

Collings' Cattle Improvement, 93 

Colors of Short-horn noses, 218 

Colors of Short-horn hair, 21a. 

Carr's (of Stackhouse) History of the Booth 

Short-horns, 95-117 

Color of Bates' herds, 134 

Danish Invasions of Northumbria, 15 

Danish Cattle taken to Northumbria, 15 

Dutch Cattle said to be introduced into 

England, 24 

Duke of Northumberland a cattle-breeder, 24 

Durham Ox, 51 

Duchess Tribe, 125-131 

Ducie's (Lord) Sale, 141 

English People — Their early condition,... 16 

Earliest known Short-horn Breeders, 24-26 

Early Colors and Appearance of the Cattle, 27 

Elder Short-horn Breeders, 148 

Etches, J. C, selected Cattle in England, 165 
Exportations of Short-horns to England, 222 
English Short-horns — Late Improvement, 244 

Foggathorpe Tribe 133 

Full-bloods, 263 

George III. a Short-horn Breeder, 33 

Galloway Grandson of Bolingbroke, 61 

Gough (or Goff) and Miller Importations, 156 

History, First Period, 13-18 

Second Period, 18-27 

Herd Book, English, 231-239 

American, 240-243 

Improvement in Short-horns — When be- 
gan, 23 

In later years, 244-254 

Improvers in Breeding — The Collings, 56-61-93 

Importations of 1815 and 1816, 160 

Importations of 1817 to Kentucky, 161 

Importations of 1817 to 1830 by various 
parties, 172-177 



266 



INDEX. 



Page 
Importations of 1833 to 1840, by various 

parties, 178-188 

Importations of 1849 to 1871, by various 

parties, 193-212 

Importations into Canada, 212-214 

Killerby Short-horns — Booth, 108 

Kirkleavington described, 124 

Matchem Cow, ; 129 

Mason, Christopher, 148 

Miller Importation, .156 

Oxford Tribe, 130-132 

Perfect Short-horn described, 225 

Pedigrees, 230 

Pure Short-horns, 230-235 

Pedigrees, English, 235 

English, their qualities, etc., 248 

In American Herd Book, 252 

Diagram of, 49 - 5° 

In Vols. 4 and 5, English Herd Book, 254 



Page 

Pedigrees, American authorities for, 255 

Absence of, 258 

Patton Stock, 158 

Red Rose Tribe, 133 

Short-horns, Early characteristics of, 19 

As a flesh-producing animal, 216 

Storer on Colling's Breeding, 47 

Studley Short-horns — Booths, 102 

Sanders' (Col. Lewis) importation of 1817, 161 

Produce of, 168 

Short-horns imported without pedigrees,.. 258 

Teeswater Cattle, 31 

Thorough-breds, -. 263 

White Heifer that Traveled, 52 

Warlaby Herd — Booth, 113 

Waterloo Tribe, 132 

Wild Eyes Tribe, 133 

Youatt's Cattle History, 62 



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